ED grills Rohit Pawar for 11 hrs

 

 

 

NCP MLA Rohit Pawar, grand nephew of party supremo Sharad Pawar, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here on Wednesday for questioning in connection with a probe into the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam and left after more than 11 hours, an official said. The MLA left the ED office in South Mumbai around 10 pm and headed for the party office. Earlier, NCP MP Supriya Sule and other party leaders accompanied the 38-year-old legislator as he arrived at the central agency’s office at Ballard Estate around 10.30 am. Before going to the probe agency’s office, Rohit Pawar went to the NCP office’s located nearby and met Sharad Pawar, touched his feet, and also interacted with other party leaders. He also visited the Vidhan Bhawan and paid tributes at the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and a plaque of the Indian Constitution.

 

Before Rohit Pawar entered the ED office, Sule handed him over a copy of the Indian Constitution. She hugged him and he touched her feet before entering the probe agency’s office. Hundreds of NCP workers, who have come here from across the state, gathered at the party office in South Mumbai. They raised slogans in support of Rohit Pawar and staged a protest against the ED. While entering the NCP office, Rohit Pawar told reporters that he had cooperated with the agencies earlier in the probe and will do so in future also. “The officers are doing their job, whatever documents they have demanded, we have given to them. I will appear before them and whatever information they are asking I will give them,” the NCP MLA from Karjat Jamkhed said. The Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank money laundering case stems from an August 2019 FIR of the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing.

 

The ED conducted searches on January 5 at the premises of Baramati Agro, a company owned by Rohit Pawar, and some linked entities in Baramati, Pune, Aurangabad and some other locations. The case was filed after the Bombay High Court issued an order to investigate the allegations of sale of sugar factories in the Maharashtra cooperative sector through alleged fraudulent means and at throwaway prices.