Mumbai: Almost seven years after the Bombay Excessive Courtroom ordered a probe into alleged irregularities on the Maharashtra State Cooperative Financial institution (MSCB), a particular court docket has formally closed the case by accepting a 2024 C-summary closure report filed by the Mumbai Police’s Financial Offences Wing (EOW).

The choice brings an finish to legal proceedings in opposition to greater than 70 people, together with former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his spouse Sunetra, named within the First Data Report (FIR) filed in 2019 on the excessive court docket’s path.

The case was politically high-profile, with Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul, Peasants and Employees Social gathering’s Jayant Patil, Congress’ Diliprao Deshmukh and Madan Patil, and NCP’s Ishwarlal Jain and Rajendra Shingane named among the many accused.

The timing of the FIR was additionally curious because it got here forward of the Maharashtra meeting polls. The Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) and the undivided Shiv Sena, which had wrested energy from the Congress-NCP mix in 2014, was in search of a second time period.

The MSCB is alleged to have sanctioned loans to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore to co-operative sugar factories regardless of their weak monetary situations and, in lots of circumstances, with none collateral. The factories had been then proven to be sick and allegedly bought to shut family of sure politicians.

In the midst of the seven years of what got here to be referred to as the Maharashtra State Cooperative Financial institution ‘rip-off’, there have been a number of twists and turns because the state noticed a number of adjustments in energy.

How probe began

It was method again in April 2012, when Pune-based businessman and activist Surinder Mohan Arora started elevating allegations about large-scale monetary irregularities in Maharashtra’s cooperative banking system.

He alleged that the MSCB, district central cooperative banks and affiliated sugar factories and spinning mills had sanctioned loans with out ample collateral, resulting in losses to the general public exchequer. These allegations shaped the bottom of a Public Curiosity Litigation (PIL).

After extended proceedings, on 22 August 2019, the HC directed the EOW to register an FIR inside 5 days and conduct an in depth investigation. Subsequently, an FIR was lodged on 26 August, invoking severe offences below the Indian Penal Code (IPC), together with legal breach of belief, dishonest, forgery and legal conspiracy, together with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Greater than 70 people had been named as accused, together with former administrators and officers of MSCB, district cooperative banks, cooperative sugar factories, and political figures related to these establishments.

On 10 September 2020, the EOW filed its first C-summary closure report earlier than the particular court docket, concluding that no legal offence was made out in opposition to any of the accused.

By that point, the federal government had modified arms. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), led by Uddhav Thackeray and comprising the then undivided Shiv Sena and NCP and the Congress, was in energy. Ajit Pawar was the Deputy CM.

A C-summary closure report is filed when investigators conclude that the fabric on report doesn’t disclose the fee of a legal offence. As soon as accepted by a court docket, it quantities to a judicial willpower that legal prosecution isn’t warranted on the details as investigated, though civil, regulatory or administrative penalties should still come up from the identical transactions.

The EOW’s motion prompted Arora to file the primary protest petition on 27 October 2020, difficult the police’s findings and in search of additional investigation. That act stored the case alive regardless of the preliminary closure suggestion.

Whereas the protest petition was pending, developments across the investigation continued. On 10 October 2022, the EOW knowledgeable the particular court docket that each the complainant and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) flagged points that weren’t examined throughout the first investigation.

The police sought the court docket’s permission to conduct additional investigation, successfully reopening scrutiny of the mortgage sanctions, recoveries and sale of cooperative sugar mills related to the case.

By this time, the MVA authorities had been toppled and a Mahayuti authorities, then comprising simply the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, was in energy. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP joined this authorities after a vertical break up within the NCP in July 2023.

The next yr, the EOW filed a second C-summary closure report on 1 March 2024, stating that even after inspecting the supplementary materials and allegations provided by the complainant, the important components of legal offences had been nonetheless not established.

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ED’s involvement

In 2019, based mostly on the EOW’s case, the ED registered a case of alleged cash laundering in opposition to the accused. This created a direct flutter because it additionally named NCP founder Sharad Pawar as an accused together with others. Whereas all different accused had been both administrators or functionaries of the MSCB till 2011, the senior Pawar had no direct reference to the financial institution or the case.

The ED’s transfer became a political spectacle forward of meeting polls that yr as Sharad Pawar declared he’ll current himself for questioning on a given date and NCP employees gathered outdoors the ED workplace. The legislation and order equipment reached out to Pawar, requesting him to not come. The case in opposition to the senior Pawar ultimately hit a wall.

In the meantime, the ED filed for an intervention into the investigation and proceedings in 2020 however was rejected by the court docket, which said that the company was not the aggrieved social gathering.

In March 2023, 4 months earlier than Ajit Pawar joined the Mahayuti authorities, it filed the primary cost sheet in opposition to two companies related to Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill and identified that the Deputy CM had hyperlinks with the sugar mills and companies concerned within the case. The ED then filed two supplementary cost sheets, first in August after which in September, in opposition to a number of companies and senior ministers.

The ED filed for an intervention a second time in March 2024, difficult the EOW’s closure report and citing its cost sheets and investigation to show it was an aggrieved social gathering this time.

The financial intelligence company had additionally provisionally connected properties value Rs 50.2 crore belonging to a sugar mill of Baramati Agro, led by Ajit Pawar’s nephew, Rohit Pawar, an MLA from the Sharad Pawar-led NCP camp.

The motion got here lower than two months earlier than the 2024 parliamentary polls. The ED alleged that the sugar mill, Kannad Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, was concerned in bidding for the factories proven to be sick by the MSCB.

The EOW’s closure report relied on inner inquiries and findings that no quantifiable loss had been induced to MSCB and that mortgage restoration procedures had been in accordance with legislation. This led to the submitting of a second protest petition by Surinder Arora, protecting the matter below judicial consideration.

In January 2025, the ED summoned Rohit Pawar and questioned him for nearly 10 hours. “We all the time combat in opposition to this authorities and businesses. I’ve submitted all mandatory paperwork to ED, and I’ve been summoned 1 February. I’ll go once more,” Rohit informed reporters later as he was requested to return in for questioning once more in February.

After interrogations, in June, ED submitted a cost sheet to the particular Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA) court docket naming three extra accused–Rohit Pawar, Baramati Agro Ltd and Rajendra Ingwale, director of Hitech Engineering Company India Ltd, whereby the cash was allegedly transferred by Rohit’s firm.

In July, the particular court docket took cognizance of the cost sheet and noticed that Rohit Pawar knowingly participated within the fraud. However it granted aid to Rohit In August, stating {that a} judgement on the EOW’s closure report is essential and the ED’s case can not proceed if the predicate offence is closed. The Mumbai Police’s EOW had filed the closure report in March 2024.

Newest developments

In February 2026, after listening to the prosecution, the complainant and intervenors, the PMLA court docket accepted the second C-summary closure report, rejected the protest petitions and declined the ED’s plea to proceed proceedings linked to alleged money-laundering.

The court docket held that the investigation didn’t disclose materials adequate to proceed with legal prosecution and that the matter couldn’t be taken ahead merely on suspicion or political controversy.

The closure of the case carries main political implications. Ajit Pawar, considered one of Maharashtra’s most influential political figures, died in a airplane crash on 28 January, simply weeks earlier than the particular court docket accepted the closure report. Quickly after, Sunetra Pawar rose quickly as she was sworn in as Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and have become president of the NCP.

The acceptance of the C-summary has seemingly vindicated her strengthening place inside each the social gathering and the federal government. The ED’s cash laundering case relies on and related to the EOW’s FIR, initially filed in 2019. Underneath the PMLA, the ED’s investigation sometimes requires an underlying legal act to be clearly established.

Because the EOW states that no such legal offense occurred within the case, the court docket’s acceptance of the report creates a hurdle for the ED’s probe, doubtlessly resulting in discontinuation of the investigation, except the company is ready to set up new offences associated to the MSCB and the sugar mills.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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