Rohit Pawar Claims ED Action as Illegal and Politically Driven

Rohit Pawar, MLA of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharadchandra Pawar, accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of politically motivated and unlawful actions in attaching the assets of the Kannad Sugar Unit owned by his company, Baramati Agro Ltd. He claimed that the statement issued by the ED contained numerous factual errors. Pawar reassured farmers and other stakeholders of the factory, urging them not to be concerned, and pledged to establish the truth in a court of law.

“The statement issued by ED states that the case is based on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai Police, (EOW) wherein it is alleged that the SSKs were fraudulently sold by the then officials and directors of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) at ‘throwaway prices’ to their relatives/private persons without following the due procedure. However, the Economic Offences Wing had not named Baramati Agro Ltd. in its submission. More importantly, in 2012 when Baramati Agro Ltd. acquired the Kannad SSK the MSCB Bank was being run by a board of administrators appointed on the recommendation of the Reserve Bank of India, and not by the then officers and directors of MSCB. So no question of there being any relation of officials/directors with any stakeholder of M/s Baramati Agro Ltd as alleged by ED.” said Pawar in his statement.

He also said that his company was not part of the first auction process of the Kannad sugar factory which failed. But participated in the second auction process. He pointed out the excerpts from the closure report of the EOW. “During the investigation, it is found that the process of sanctioning loans by MSC Bank and sale of sugar mills are carried out in tune with legal provisions and MSC Bank has not caused financial loss from the same or directors of the bank, officials of bank etc. have not benefited from the same. It is also found that the events of violations of guidelines of NABARD, RBI or other regularities do not amount to criminal acts.” states the report.