Close on the heels of P Chidambaram and DK Shivakumar's arrest, the Enforcement Directorate has indicted former chief minister Sharad Pawar, his nephew Ajit Pawar and 70 other officials in Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank scam.
Allegations are that Ajit Pawar and elected representatives of various political parties, in the capacity of bank directors, had sanctioned loans, between 2001 and 2011, in a fraudulent manner for personal benefit of associates of bank officials.
They sanctioned loans to the office bearers and directors of local co-operative sugar factories (CSFs), spinning mills and other processing units, despite their weak financials and negative net worth.
After CSFs turned sick due to alleged mismanagement, they were sold to the board, which in turn, bought these for less than the reserve price, resulting in wrongful gains for the purchaser.
The wrongful purchasers had personal or political nexus with the board of directors including Ajit Pawar.
Sharad Pawar is alleged to have been the tutor of this scam, according to the main complainant Surinder Arora, who is a Mumbai-based activist.
However, the National Congress Party accused BJP of vendetta politics over the issue and alleged it was diverting attention from the failures of present Maharashtra government ahead of assembly elections.
These allegations have not cut much ice because people are not fools. They very well know it was on the behest of the Bombay High Court that the ED had to initiate action against Pawar and others.
They are aware of the long list of corruption charges against Pawar in the past, and also are well informed about his close ties with underworld dons, including Dawood Ibrahim, who was the main accused in 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.
People also are aware of his complicity in shielding Dawood from arrests and allowing him to flee the country. They remember the 2015 interview by former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, who said the then Pawar government had shelved the plan to take Dawood into custody, though he had offered to surrender.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had alleged that there was a definite nexus between Dawood's associates and Pawar. It also alleged that the Maratha strong man had received Rs 72 crore from a hawala racketeer and Dawood's close aide Mool Chand Shah alias Choksi, between December 1979 and October 1992.
MHA had also stated that Pawar had received Rs 7 crore from Choksi between December 1979 and February 1980.
The ministry also had revealed that Pawar had received another installment of Rs five crore from Choksi around May 1991.
Some of these monies were paid for election purposes, but was also used by Pawar to siphon money abroad.
MHA also had alleged, Choksi was in constant touch with Pawar till few months before the Bombay blasts. An alleged major transaction of Rs 10 crore, channeled through the middle-east, was received by his nephew in October 1992.
Choksi was arrested under TADA on May 4, 1993, for funding Tiger Memon with Rs 2.5 crore for the blasts.
In March 1989, a detention order was issued against him, but was revoked at the behest of then Home Minister and close confidant of Arun Mehta, after receiving Rs 2 crore from the racketeer.
No politician has drawn the kind of flak Sharad Pawar has. Consider these - his involvement in the wheat, Lavasa, Telgi and sugar scams, besides Nira Radia allegations, are enough for any right-thinking citizen to be angered over the spell of devastation wrought by Pawar on the Indian economy over the years, and see him rot in the jail, at least in the latest bank scam.
This is yet another opportunity for the Lutyens media to take this matter up to cleanse their muck, which had dirtied this noble profession and also the image of the country.
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