Amid ongoing trouble for opposition leaders including Former Union Minister P Chidambaram and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered Mumbai Police to register an FIR against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar in connection with the alleged Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam case.
The Bombay HC directed the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) branch to file an FIR within three days against Pawar and 70 others involved in the loan distribution scam where nearly ₹25,000 crore was allegedly given.
Along with Ajit Pawar, other senior leaders including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul, NCP leader Shivajirao Nalawade. Mohite-Patil was earlier in NCP but joined BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
A bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and SK Shinde held that prima facie, there was credible evidence against them in the case. Earlier in 2015, local activist Surendra Arora had filed a complaint while seeking an FIR to be registered.
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In this case, NABARD’s audit report revealed that several banking laws and even Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) guidelines were violated. The loans were distributed to sugar factories and spinning mills which defaulted on repayment and recovery of the same. During this time, Ajit Pawar was the director of the bank.