MLA Bamb accuses Krishna Patil Dongaonkar of betraying farmers

Aurangabad, March 13:

MLA Prashant Bamb has accused former president of Gangapur Co-operative Sugar Factory Krishna Patil Dongaonkar of betraying the farmers and handing over the factory to a leader from western Maharashtra .

A case was lodged at the Gangapur police station three months ago on a complaint lodged by Dongaonkar against the board of directors, including Bamb, for allegedly embezzling Rs 15 crore from the Gangapur sugar factory. In a press conference held against this backdrop, Bamb denied the allegations of embezzlement. He said that Gangapur sugar factory with a daily crushing capacity of 2,000 metric tonnes, 350 acres of land and a distillery with a capacity of 30,000 liters was sold in 2008. It was bought by the Rajaram Foods Group of the present water resources minister Jayant Patil. The then president Kailash Patil filed a petition in the court to stop the sale, but he did not succeed. In 2010, he contacted us and tried to save the factory. Accordingly, when I took the initiative and went to court, the court imposed a condition to pay Rs 9 crore in the name of the factory. We borrowed this amount from farmers, well-wishers and friends and deposited it in the bank and stopped the sale of the factory. After a great court battle, the factory became the property of the farmers. In 2015, I was elected as the chairman of the factory. The amount deposited by the farmers was returned by the court with interest. The factory received Rs 15.80 crore through cheque. Three persons were given the responsibility of distributing the amount to the farmers through GPA. Two hundred farmers were allotted Rs 2.21 lakh, but Krishna Dongaonkar, under political pressure, forced the Gangapur police to file a false case against us on November 18, 2020, MLA Bamb alleged.