Mumbai Police give clean chit to Ajit Pawar, his wife, nephew in alleged money-laundering case

The Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police has given a clean chit to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, his wife Sunetra Pawar and nephew Rohit Pawar in an alleged money-laundering scam involving the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank, reported The Indian Express on Wednesday.

The case pertains to allegations that officials at the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank fraudulently doled out loans to the owners of cooperative sugar factories, their relatives or other persons without following due procedure.

In July, Ajit Pawar, along with several party MLAs, joined Maharashtra’s coalition government comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Ajit Pawar then became the deputy chief minister.

The move led to a split in the Nationalist Congress Party, with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing Ajit Pawar, who is fighting the Lok Sabha elections in

After the businesses were declared as non-performing assets, they were allegedly sold to people linked to the directors of the bank at throwaway prices.

The agency filed its closure report in January but its details were made available only on Tuesday, according to The Indian Express.

The report said that the public-sector bank did not incur any losses due to the alleged irregularities and that it had so far recovered Rs 1,343.41 crore of...

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