Mumbai: After accusing Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar of cheating and criminal breach of trust in the alleged Rs 25,000 crore scam at the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB), the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police has now claimed that a criminal case was filed “due to mistake of facts”.
On Friday, March 1, the EOW filed a ‘C summary’ report before the special court in Mumbai. A ‘C summary’ report is filed when the investigating agency is of the opinion that a person is wrongly implicated in a case due to mistake of facts.
The report is then to be accepted by the court before the case is closed against the person. The report was filed through special public prosecutor Raja Thackery. Special judge R.N. Rokade of Mumbai sessions court has adjourned the matter until March 15.
The court will take the final call on whether to accept the closure report or to direct the police to conduct further investigation and subsequently file a chargesheet in the matter.
The police’s move is not surprising. There has been a pattern in both the state and central agencies’ conduct in cases involving leaders, more specifically of those from the opposition who have jumped ships to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or form an alliance.
This is not the first time that the EOW has filed a closure report in the matter. In 2020, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — a tri-party government comprising of the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress — was in power, the EOW had first filed a closure report. Pawar was a deputy chief minister even then. The closure report was against Pawar and 70 others named in the case.
However, when the MVA government collapsed in the state and BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena took over, the EOW had suddenly shown interest in “reinvestigating” the matter. In October 2022, the EOW had said that it would want to further probe the matter.
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Within months, Pawar had joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state. He became the second deputy chief minister in July 2023, with Devendra Fadnavis already holding that post. For this, Pawar had parted ways with his uncle and founder of the NCP party Sharad Pawar.
Along with Ajit Pawar, several other MLAs left. Recently, the election commission granted him the party name and symbol, forcing Sharad Pawar to rename his party as NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar.
The Wire had published a detailed report on the opposition leaders who crossed over to the BJP and suddenly all allegations against them were either dropped or the state machinery had lost interest in investigating the matter any further.
In Maharashtra alone some eight leaders have either left the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, or Sharad Pawar-led NCP or the Congress to join hands with the BJP fearing adverse action against them. Each of them are facing investigation either in the hands of the Enforcement Department (ED) or the CBI.
Ajit Pawar’s case history
The EOW’s case dates back to 2019 when the Bombay high court had ordered an investigation into the matter following a petition. The EOW filed the First Information Report (FIR) in the case and all accused were booked under the Indian Penal Code sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating), the Prevention of Corruption Act, and Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act.
According to the FIR, loans worth thousands of crores were obtained by sugar cooperatives, spinning mills and other entities from district and cooperative banks in Maharashtra. Ajit Pawar allegedly had direct link as he was one of the directors of the MSC bank then. The loans were allegedly procured through illegal means and the EOW claimed to have found many irregularities in the procurement process. According to the EOW’s FIR, the state exchequer suffered a loss of Rs 25,000 crore between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2017.
The ED had filed a separate offence alleging money-laundering based on the EOW’s case. It has so far filed two chargesheets, including against Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction MLA Prajakt Tanpure. In the absence of a base offence, like the EOW case, the ED cannot continue with its probe.
