New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has attached assets worth more than Rs 50 crore of a sugar mill owned by a company of Rohit Pawar, the grandnephew of NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar. The action pertains to the money laundering investigation being conducted by the federal agency in the alleged Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam.
A total of 161.30 acres of land, plant, machinery and building of the Kannad Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Limited (Kannad SSK) located in Kannad village of Aurangabad district has been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said in a statement.
The total value of these assets is Rs 50.20 crore, it said. The Kannad SSK is "owned" by Baramati Agro Ltd., a company of Rohit Pawar. He is also an MLA of the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The ED claimed the "acquisition" of Kannad SSK by Baramati Agro Ltd was illegal and hence assets so acquired are "proceeds of crime" under the PMLA.
The 38-year-old legislator from Karjat-Jamkhed assembly seat of Maharashtra has been questioned by the ED twice in the past after it searched the premises of Baramati Agro, Kannad SSK and some others in January. The agency said the MSCB, in order to recover an outstanding loan of Rs 80.56 crore of Kannad SSK Limited, took possession of all its assets on 13.07.2009 under the SARFAESI Act.
The MSCB conducted an auction on 30.08.2012 of Kannad SSK by fixing a "very low" reserve price based on a questionable valuation report, the ED alleged. "Apart from Baramati Agro Ltd., two other parties entered into the bidding process. The bidder with the highest bid was technically disqualified on flimsy ground, whereas the other bidder was already a close business associate of Baramati Agro Ltd. with no financial capacity or experience of running a sugar unit," it said.
Rohit Pawar had earlier told reporters that the EOW has "filed a closure report" in the case for which he was being interrogated by the ED. "I was in business first before entering politics. I haven't done anything wrong. Those in government should know I am not scared. Those who got scared ran away," Rohit Pawar had said in a veiled dig at his uncle, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who broke ranks and joined the Eknath Shinde government in July 2023.
The MSCB money laundering case stems from an August 2019 FIR of the Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW). The scam pertains to an allegation that the SSKs were fraudulently sold by the then officers and directors of MSCB at throw-away prices to their relatives/private persons without following the due procedure. The ED has filed three charge sheets till now as part of this case case investigation and had attached assets worth Rs 121.47 crore.
