Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Rohit Pawar appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai for questioning in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) case on Wednesday. The NCP MLA was seen posing for pictures along with NCP MP Supriya Sule and taking her blessings before entering the ED office.
Before heading to the ED office, Rohit Pawar said that he does not have anything against the ED officials as they are just doing their work. “I am carrying all the files and documents that the agency had asked for. I will answer all the questions of ED and will support them. The ED officials are just doing their work, I don’t have anything against them. I am ready to support them in every possible way,” Rohit Pawar said, speaking to reporters on Wednesday.
Challenging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the NCP MLA who is also party founder Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew said that if these proceedings are being carried out only to “put pressure” on him, they should understand that they are “experimenting” on the wrong person because he is not scared of anyone. “If all this is done to put pressure on me, they have done this experiment on the wrong person. I am Marathi, I am not scared of anyone,” Rohit Pawar said.
Speaking on the possibility of arrest, he said that he has not done anything wrong and if they do, they will be taking relief from the judiciary. “I don’t think they are going to arrest me because I have done nothing wrong. I will give them whatever document they have asked from me. There is no question of arrest. Whatever they do (arrest) according to their procedure, we have to take relief from the judiciary. We need to fight,” Rohit Pawar said.
Earlier in the day, Rohit Pawar went to the party office in Mumbai to take blessings from Sharad Pawar. Supriya Sule was also seen at the NCP office in Mumbai. The Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank scam case relates to the alleged fraudulent disbursal of loans amounting to 25,000 crores. The case triggered the filing of a PIL Petition in the Bombay High Court by four persons.
The PIL shed light on the alleged modus operandi of the fraud. In the petition, it was alleged that some sugar mills defaulted on the loans, which were given without due diligence. Those sugar mills were attached by the MSC banks and auctioned to various office bearers of the bank and politicians. Acting on the PIL the Bombay High Court ordered the registration of a case. The Economic Offences Wing(EOW), which is under the Maharashtra government, investigated the case. When EOW filed a closure report in 2020 in the Bombay Session Court, ED filed an intervention petition against the closure report and started an investigation.
