Clean chit to Ajit Pawar in irrigation scam case

In a significant development, the Maharashtra state anti-corruption bureau has given a clean chit to Ajit Pawar, who was allegedly involved in the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam. The clean chit was given today after the investigation file was closed down today.

The development came to light through a letter posted on the twitter handle KattaNews.

Ajit Pawar, who was sworn in as Maharashtra deputy CM on Saturday along with BJP’s Devender Fadnavis who took reigns as CM, had a bevvy of cases against him.

In September this year, weeks before the commencement of the assembly election in Maharashtra, the Enforcement Directorate registered a criminal case against him as one of the accused in the allegedly ₹25,000 Crore scam in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank. The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), equivalent of a police FIR, was registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The case was based on a Mumbai Police FIR that had named the then directors of the bank, former deputy chief minister of the state Ajit Pawar, and 70 former functionaries.

Mumbai Police had registered the FIR on the directions of the Mumbai High Court. Other accused included Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) leader Jayant Patil and officials from the superseded bank's branches in 34 districts in the state. The accused were accused of causing losses to the tune of ₹1,000 Crore to MSCB between 2007 and 2011.

Ajit Pawar had claimed his innocence then and had resigned his seat as MLA, days before the election, in protest against the ED naming his uncle Sharad Pawar also as an accused.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau of Maharashtra had also named Ajit Pawar as an accused in the ₹70,000 Crore irrigation scam, which allegedly took place during the Congress-NCP Government.

A number of users took to microblogging platform Twitter to comment on the development:

ACB gives clean chit to @AjitPawarSpeaks. Congrats @Dev_Fadnavis for your promptness!

The bjp may lose some aliies like the shiv sena, TDP etc But it's trusted allies - ED, CBI, ACB, ECI will always be loyal to it

A few days ago NCP leader Ajit Pawar helped BJP to form Govt. in Maharashtra Today Ajit Pawar has been given Clean Chit in Irrigation Scam by Anti Corruption Bureau Both Events are not related to each other.

In a related development, Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) DG, Parambir Singh however, was quoted to have said that, ‘None of the cases that were closed today are related to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit Pawar’