Mumbai, Apr 22 (PTI) A special court here on Wednesday discharged NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar and other accused in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an alleged Rs 25,000 crore scam at the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB).
A money laundering case cannot survive in the absence of “predicate” offence, said the special judge for MPs/MLAs cases Mahesh Jadhav, adding that a closure report accepted by a competent court in the predicate offence amounts to acquittal.
The ED’s money laundering case against Pawar and others stemmed from an August 2019 FIR filed by the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) alleging fraudulent sale of SSKs (Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana or cooperative sugar mills) by the then officers and directors of MSCB at throwaway prices to their relatives/private persons without following due procedure.
However, a special court for MPs/MLAs cases recently accepted the EOW’s closure report in that case.
Citing a Supreme Court ruling, judge Jadhav noted that no action can be taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act if there is no predicate offence. A case under PMLA is always based on another, prior offence.
Rohit Pawar and others named as accused in ED’s case had sought discharge from the money laundering case after the EOW’s case was closed.
The Federal probe agency had opposed their pleas, stating that while the closure report had been accepted by the lower court, a 2021 writ petition challenging earlier rejection of ED’s intervention application was still pending before the Bombay High Court.
It had urged the court to decide the discharge applications on merits of the money laundering investigation.
The judge clarified that the ED has “every liberty to revive present proceedings” if the HC passed an order in its favour. “The current lack of a subsisting criminal complaint makes the PMLA prosecution legally untenable,” the special court held.
The alleged scam pertained to disbursal of loans to cooperative sugar factories, spinning mills and other entities by district and cooperative banks without following norms. The MSCB is Maharashtra’s apex cooperative bank.
The EOW had alleged that the state exchequer suffered losses of Rs 25,000 crore between January 2007 to December 2017 due to irregularities in disbursal of loans. PTI AVI KRK
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