The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Rohit Pawar, the grandnephew of NCP legislator and party leader Sharad Pawar, for more than eight hours on Thursday as part of an investigation into potential money laundering associated with irregularities in the sale of cooperative sugar factories that the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) mortgaged.
When the agency questioned Rohit on Wednesday as well, he arrived at the ED’s Ballard Pier office around 1:00 pm and left around 9.00 pm.
The ED is interviewing the MLA in connection with a case involving the purportedly rigged 2012 auction of a sick sugar plant in Aurangabad and the potential embezzlement of bank cash by Baramati Agro Private Limited (BAPL) and two other companies. The CEO of BAPL is Rohit, who is a representative for the Karjat-Jamkhed assembly seat.
According to ED officials, BAPL is accused of providing funding to an accused co-bidder who complied with the auction’s obligation to deposit an Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of ₹5 crore.
The ED claims that in October and November of 2012, BAPL, Samruddhi Sugar Pvt Ltd, and the now-defunct Hitech Engineering Corporation India Pvt Ltd took part in the auction of the cooperative sugar factory, Kannad SSK, located in Aurangabad. Ultimately, BAPL allegedly paid 50 crore to acquire Kannad SSK.
According to an agency source, “The ED is also looking into whether BAPL used money from cash credit accounts of different banks that were approved to meet capital requirements to buy the sugar mill.” The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police filed a FIR on August 26, 2019, which serves as the basis for the ED investigation.
The ED claims that Hitech Engineering used ₹5 crore that it had allegedly received from Baramati Agro as an EMD to bid on Kannad SSK a few days later. The bank put Kannad SSK up for auction in accordance with the SARFAESI (Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest) Act after the company had taken out loans from the MSCB.
The Bombay High Court’s judgement from August 22, 2019 led to the registration of the EOW’s case. The EOW had submitted a closing report for its ongoing investigation to the appropriate court.
According to the FIR, the former MSCB officers and directors deceitfully sold sick sugar mills to relatives and private individuals at bargain prices without following the SARFAESI Act’s requirements for due process.
In the meantime, in the purported ₹25,000-crore MSCB scam case, the EOW last month submitted a closure report in a local court, its second since September 2020. Although reviewing the petitioners’ claims, the agency stated in its filing of the closure report on January 20 that nothing damning was discovered during its second investigation. In response to the EOW closure report, an ED officer stated that although the report had not yet reached the agency, it will be reviewed and decisions regarding further steps made thereafter. According to sources, the ED investigation is confirming claims that the sugar plant up for auction was not worth its full price.
