The Enforcement Directorate raided the premises of Baramati Agro, a firm owned by MLA Rohit Pawar, the grand nephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and related organisations on Friday as part of a money laundering investigation into the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam, according to official sources, news agency PTI reported. They stated at least six places in Baramati, Pune, Pimpri, and Aurangabad are being searched. Baramati Agro's office in Baramati town is also being covered.
Rohit Pawar, 38, is the NCP MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed in Maharashtra and the owner and CEO of Baramati Agro.
Rohit is the nephew of Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar, the state's Deputy Chief Minister and a Baramati MLA.
The investigation into his firm is related to charges of "diversion" of cash and the deposit of earnest payments by a company that bid on the purchase of an ailing Maharashtra-based cooperative sugar factor (CSF).
The MSCB money laundering case arises from a FIR filed by the Mumbai Police Economic Offences (EOW) branch in August of this year.
The police complaint followed an order issued by the Bombay High Court on August 22, that year, to examine charges of selling sugar mills in the Maharashtra cooperative sector through allegedly fraudulent ways and at throwaway rates.
What Is MSC Bank Scam Case?
The ED launched the probe in response to a FIR filed by Mumbai Police's Economic Offence Wing (EOW) in 2019 under various sections of the IPC and the PMLA Act.
The FIR was filed on the orders of the Bombay High Court in response to claims that the cooperative sugar plants were fraudulently sold at low rates to linked organisations by then-officials and directors of Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) without following necessary procedure.
The EOW submitted a closure report in the case at the Mumbai sessions court in 2020, while the ED filed an intervention in opposition to the closure report. The Mumbai Police EOW told the court for MLAs and MPs in October 2022 that it has began investigating the concerns highlighted by protest petitions and the ED.