Court directs probe; prominent politicians like Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil come under scanner of law
A division bench of the High Court on Thursday has directed the economic offences wing of the city to register an FIR within five days against erring former office-bearers in the state's cooperative banks, all of whom are politicians, as court found that prima-facie there is a commission of offence.
The list is long and across political parties — BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP and PWP. The list includes prominent names like Ajit Pawar from the NCP, Diliprao Deshmukh from the Congress, Suryakanta Patil from BJP and Jayant Patil from PWP.
A bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and Sandeep K Shinde said in their order, "...after perusing the chargesheet and the Inspection Report of the NABARD, in our view the report of inquiry/inspection constitute information and/or material which prima-facie discloses the commission of cognizable offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code and other penal laws and therefore, we direct the Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai to register the First Information Report within five (5) days from today." It stated, "The Inspection report also discloses that most of the Directors were having interest in the affairs of the units to which loans were sanctioned...Prima-facie the report of the NABARD indicates that these directors were having complete knowledge regarding the transaction and inspite of that, either they sanctioned the loan to such units and/or sold the properties of such units at throw away prices which resulted into a substantial loss to the bank."
The order also reproduced an order by the apex court which had emphasized that corruption is a disease and that though it has pervaded our public and social life, by strong legislative measures it can be controlled. It said that the need of the hour is to enforce such measures strictly by bringing to book the mighty, rich, influential and powerful.
Big Names
|
| Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil (Ex-NCP) |
| Suryakanta Patil (BJP) |
| Suresh Varpurkar (NCP) |
| Basvaraj Nagarakar (Congress) |
| Manikrao Patil (Congress) |
| Sambajirao Patil (Congress) |
| Dilip Sopal (NCP) |
| Siddharam Mhetre (Congress) |
| Ajit Pawar (NCP) |
| Diliprao Deshmukh (Congress) |
| Jayant Patil (PWP) |
The PIL had been filed by Surinder Arora, a businessman in 2015 against the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank and former directors and chairmen of the bank for being involved in corruption and irregularities concerning the funds of the banks. The petition had alleged secured assets were sold at distress value, without following procedure by private negotiations and also irregularities in sanctioning of loans.
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