NARENDRA SASTRY | India Tomorrow
MUMBAI, AUGUST 27– A multi-thousand crore loan disbursal and secure assets sale scam involving the Maharashtra State Co-Operative Bank (MSCB) and district co-operative banks has come to haunt Maharashtra’s former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, several other NCP leaders and some other politicians from the Congress, Shiv Sena, PWP and BJP, ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls to be held in October this year.
The FIR has also named NCP founder-president Sharad Pawar for his alleged involvement in conspiracy and abetment in the Rs 1,086 crore MSCB scam.
In the case of Ajitdada — as senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar is known in the State political circles- it is a virtual repeat of what happened in the run-up to the 2014 State Assembly polls when he carried the albatross of Rs 20,000 crore irrigation scam around his neck. The ruling BJP is bound to make an issue of the MSCB scam, in which a majority of the accused are from the NCP, to take on the Sharad Pawar-led party in the State Assembly polls.
Unlike last time when Ajitdada and then Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare were involved in the state irrigation scam, this time around a host of NCP leaders are involved in the MSCB scam involving Rs 1,086 crore.
Significantly enough, the MSCB scam – in which a First Information Report (FIR) was filed by the Mumbai police yesterday – may singe NCP founder-president Sharad Pawar as well. For, Sr Pawar’s name figures in the FIR for his alleged involvement in conspiracy and abetment of the scam on the ground that all the loan disbursal decisions were taken at his behest and no action was taken to recover the loans. Sr Pawar is the uncle of Ajitdada.
Though the leaders of other political parties have been named in the FIR, it is the NCP leaders who have the maximum involvement in the scam. Among other things, the FIR states that of the total 77 MSCB directors involved in the scam, 57 belong to the NCP, nine to the Congress, two to the Shiv Sena and one to the BJP.
Acting on the directive given by a two-member division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justices S C Dharmadhikari and S K Shinde, the Economic Offence Wing(EOW) of the Mumbai registered an FIR with the MRA Marg Police Station against MSC Bank, directors in district cooperative banks in Maharashtra, a cooperative bank, officials of the Maharashtra Government and others under sections 406, 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467, 468 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 34 (common intent), 120-B (conspiracy) IPC and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
While directing the EOW of the Mumbai police to register an FIR in the scam case, the HC division bench had said: “After perusing the charge-sheet filed under the MCS Act and the Inspection Report of the NABARD, in our view, for the reasons stated therein, as also, the report of the inquiries and inspection constitutes credible information and/ matter which prima facie discloses commission of cognisable offences punishable under IPC and other laws”.
After hearing a public interest litigation filed by Mumbai-based activist Surinder M. Arora, the high court had ordered registration of an FIR against all those involved in the scam.
Apart from Ajit Pawar, the prominent among the leaders who have been named in the FIR are former deputy chief minister and NCP leader Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, who is now with the BJP, NCP MLAs Hasan Mushrif, Dilip Sopal, Rajendra Shingane of the NCP, late BJP leader Pandurang Fundkar, Congress leader Dilip Deshmukh, Madhukar Chavan, PWP leader Jayant Patil and his sister Meenakshi Patil, Shiv Sena leader and ex-MP Anandrao Adsul, and Prithviraj Deshmukh of the BJP.
Most of the directors of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank who are allegedly involved in the scam perpetrated between 2001 and 2011 were elected representatives from various parties, particularly the NCP and Congress.
In a stinging observation made in its verdict delivered last week, the HC bench noted: “The Loan Committee (of the MSC Bank) has played a fraud on the statute as well as the cooperative governance structure in sanctioning illegal loans, whereas the general body of the Board of Directors of MSCB are equally responsible for not making accountable for its mistakes and recovering the loans.. The general body of the board of directors has acted hand in gloves with the loan committee and turned a blind eye towards the naked brazenness committed by the Loan Committee”.
Among other things, the information provided in the high court’s verdict stated that “the MSCB has falsely shown Rs 2.87 crore net profit whereas as per current accounting procedure and IRAC norms there was a net loss of Rs 775 crore. NPAs were intentionally not mentioned in the balance sheet”.
After perusing the NABARD report and charge-sheet filed under MCS Act by the authorised officer of the International Banking Division, Co-operative Societies, the court observed in its verdict: “The inspection report (of NABARD), therefore, not only points out the discrepancies or irregularities committed by the respondent bank and its directors but also point out that the trust reposed in the bank and its officers has been brazenly breached. The report, prima facie discloses that the bank records were forged and the profits were wrongly shown by abusing the Income Recognition and Asset Clarification (IRAC) norms.”
“The report further discloses NPA accounts were intentionally camouflaged, in as much as, the amount sanctioned and disbursed to units wherein the directors were having interest were not shown in the periodical reports of the bank with a view to safeguarding the interest of the directors,” the high court had said.
The NABARD’s inspection of the MSCB Bank’s records has revealed flouting of various banking and Reserve Bank of India rules, while distributing loans to sugar factories and spinning mills, the subsequent defaults on repayments and recoveries of the dues.
The MSCB Bank scam has revived the memories of the Rs 20,000 crore which the then Opposition BJP alliance whipped up against the NCP in its campaigning for the 2014 Assembly polls.
It may be recalled that the multi-thousand irrigation scam had come to light in September 2012. Ajitdada resigned from the deputy chief minister’s post on September 25, 2012, attributing his decision to the media reports on the alleged irregularities in the awarding of 38 irrigation contracts worth Rs 20,000 crore in Vidarbha region during 2009, without seeking the mandatory clearance from the governing council of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC).
Ajitdada was the State Irrigation Minister between 1999 and 2010, before he was elevated as the deputy chief minister and handed the portfolios of Finance and Energy. The irrigation scam had allegedly taken place during his tenure as the State irrigation minister.
After Ajitdada took over as the deputy chief minister, Tatkare assumed charge as the Irrigation (Water Resources) Minister.
However, after the state government subsequently came out with a white paper on the irrigation projects in the state, Ajitdada was re-inducted as the deputy chief minister in December 2012.
Soon after Ajitdada’s return to the State Cabinet, the Democratic Front (DF) government appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by irrigation expert Madhav Chitale, to look into various aspects of the irrigation scam. The DF government –while tabling the Madhav Chitale committee’s ATS report on the massive irrigation scam along with the Action Taken Report (ATR) – had given a “clean chit” to Ajitdada.
However, subsequently after it came to power, the BJP-Shiv Sena government on December 12, 2014, ordered inquiries by the State Anti Corruption (ACB) against Ajit Pawar and two other senior NCP leaders Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal in alleged corruption cases.
Ajit Pawar and Tatkare continue to be investigated by the State ACB in the irrigation scam.
