look news india
Mumbai: The Mumbai Police has opposed the application given by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interfere with the closure report given by the police in the alleged Rs 25 thousand crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam. The Maharashtra Police wants to close the case related to Maharashtra government's Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Patel. On the other hand, even though Ajit Pawar is in the NDA, the Enforcement Directorate, which is owned by the NDA government at the Center, does not want the case to be closed.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was named as an accused in the original case registered by the Economic Offences Wing of the city police, but the Economic Offences Wing of the police later said in a closure report that no undue loss was caused to the bank due to the alleged fraud.
The Economic Offences Wing said in a written reply on Thursday that such an application of the ED was earlier rejected by a special court. The central agency has again applied on the same issue.
The court had accepted the closure report filed by the Economic Offences Wing earlier in September 2020. But in October 2022, the investigating agency told the court that further investigation was underway based on the issues raised in the opposition petition by the prosecutor and the ED.
In March, the police again submitted a closure report and said that the bank had not suffered any loss. The ED, which is investigating the money laundering case related to the scam, had recently applied to the court for mediation in the hearing of the closure report.
The agency said the case is based on an FIR of the Economic Offences Wing and a chargesheet and two supplementary chargesheets have been filed. The ED told the court that the closure report will affect the prosecution's complaints as well as the quantum of offence.
The FIR, lodged following a high court order, alleged that loans worth thousands of crores of rupees taken from district and cooperative banks by sugar cooperatives, spinning mills and other companies had been diverted or not repaid.
NCP leader Ajit Pawar and 70 others were directors of the bank at that time and have been named as accused. The Maharashtra government has suffered a loss of Rs. 25 thousand crores due to the alleged malpractices between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2017. It is alleged that loans were given at cheap rates in violation of RBI rules and the properties of defaulters were sold at nominal prices.
