Maharashtra: ED attaches assets of sugar mill linked to Ajit Pawar

In A significant development that will certainly have political repercussions, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached assets worth Rs 65 crore of a sugar mill allegedly linked to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s family members.

Pawar’s party colleague and former home minister, Anil Deshmukh and his personal staff, are already being investigated by the ED. Pawar’s case is related to the money laundering allegations of purchasing Jarandeshwar Cooperative Sugar Mill at a throwaway price, allegedly using finance from a company controlled by his wife. The mill was auctioned by the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) which had Pawar on its board of directors. Later, the bidder gave the mill on lease to a company owned by Pawar’s another close relative, said sources, which had listed five other similar cases of ‘auction purchase at discounted price’.

EOW closed probe

The state EOW had investigated the case and closed it, but the ED’s investigation that began in 2019, culminated into attachment of the land, building, plant and machinery of the sugar mill in Satara district. The FIR, registered following a High Court order, had named Ajit Pawar and about 70 others cutting across the parties. The FIR said the irregularities caused the state exchequer a loss of Rs 25,000 crore between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2017.

Sources said that the assets were currently held in the name of Guru Commodity Services Pvt. Ltd. and leased to Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt. Ltd.

BJP’s ex-MP Kirit Somaiya welcomed the ED action. “It’s a benami sugar factory of Ajit Pawar. I have requested the ED for investigation of similar transaction of Rohit Pawar (Ajit’s MLA nephew) who acquired Kannad Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd at very much under-valued price of Rs 50 cr through manipulated auction of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank,” Somaiya said in a statement.

In the same case, ED had sent a notice to Sharad Pawar, the DyCM’s uncle and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) boss, ahead of the 2019 Assembly polls. Pawar had planned a voluntary visit to the ED’s Mumbai office, creating a big political event out of it. He called off the plan when the ED told him that there was a need for him to visit the office. This event earned Pawar huge political traction which peaked when he addressed an election rally in the rains in western Maharashtra. Politics in Maharashtra turned out to be an unexpected spectacle when Ajit Pawar joined hands with the BJP to make a government, but didn’t proceed because of the lack of majority. He became the DyCM in the three-party MVA government which his uncle shaped up.

More trouble for MVA

As the MVA government dragged its feet amid the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) onslaught and the pandemic, it lost two ministers to the controversies. The BJP has officially asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to initiate a CBI probe against Ajit Pawar and Sena’s minister Anil Parab.