New Delhi: In a major political twist, rivals Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar joined hands to form a government in Maharashtra early Saturday morning.
Interestingly, just a year ago, BJP state president Raosaheb Danve at a party rally in Pimpri-Chinchwad had said that Ajit was going to be arrested “anytime now” in connection with the alleged irrigation scam. This is when NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal had come out in Pawar’s support, accusing the BJP government of “fixing” a politician in opposition.
Since then, the power equation in Maharashtra has taken a dramatic turn.
ThePrint looks at the criminal cases being investigated against NCP leaders.
Also read: 5 reasons why nobody is ready to believe Sharad Pawar
Ajit Pawar and the irrigation scam
Ajit Pawar is being probed in the Maharashtra irrigation scam, pegged at around Rs 70,000 crore.
According to the case being probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), the NCP executed several irrigation projects in exchange for monetary benefits, thus leading to a case of corruption and misuse of office.
According to investigators, approvals to 38 projects were allegedly granted without mandatory clearance by the governing council of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC).
According to the case, Ajit was among the NCP ministers in-charge of the irrigation department at different times between 1999 and 2014, when the Congress-NCP coalition ruled in Maharashtra and when the deals were executed.
In the inquiry that followed, Ajit claimed his decisions were based on recommendations of secretary-level officers and most were taken at the field level.
In September 2012, Ajit quit his post as deputy chief minister as the allegations mounted, but was later reinstated.
Interestingly, at a rally in Pimpri-Chichwad last year, BJP state president Raosaheb Danve had said that Ajit was going to be arrested “anytime now” in connection with the alleged irrigation scam.
In the presence of Devendra Fadnavis, at the ‘Atal Sankalp Mahasammelan’, Danve had said, “I want to tell you that Ajit Pawar will be arrested anytime now…police personnel are outside his residence, waiting to arrest him.”
But NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal came out in support of Ajit:
“… The thing is that politicians (in government) first fix a person (in Opposition) and later through police machinery start action against him. They (government) first decide what would be the result of the action and later, the inquiry starts,” Bhujbal had said.
Last year, in November, the Maharashtra ACB informed the Bombay High Court that its probe into the alleged multi-crore irrigation scam had revealed major lapses on the part of Ajit and other government officials.
ACB’s Director General Sanjay Barve also filed an affidavit before the Nagpur bench of the high court last year in response to a petition filed by the NGO Janmanch.
The NGO, in its petition had raised concerns over irregularities in irrigation projects undertaken by the Vidharba and Konkan Irrigation Development Corporations.
It said several projects in these corporations had suffered delays and cost escalations and that projected goals had not been realised during Ajit’s stewardship as minister for water resources department.
The affidavit also described the scam as a “weird case of conspiracy” which has “defrauded the government itself”.
The ACB also said it had sought the opinion of the water resources department’s principal secretary about Pawar’s role as minister.
Also read: Sharad Pawar calls nephew Ajit Pawar’s move to support BJP as ‘against party lines’
The ED case against Sharad and Ajit Pawar
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in September this year, a month before the assembly polls, had booked NCP chief Sharad Pawar, and Ajit, along with others, in a case of money laundering linked to the alleged Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam.
The case is based on a Mumbai Police FIR, filed in August, naming the then directors of the bank, former deputy chief minister Ajit and 70 former functionaries of the cooperative bank.
Ajit had served as deputy chief minister from 10 November 2010 to 26 September 2014.
According to the police, the state exchequer allegedly suffered losses worth Rs 25,000 crore in this case, between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2017.
Leaders from several political parties, including the NCP and Shiv Sena, like Diliprao Deshmukh, Isharlal Jain, Jayant Patil, Shivaji Rao, Anand Rao Adsul, Rajendra Shingane and Madan Patil were also named as accused in the ED case.
The ED alleged irregularities in loan disbursements by the MSC Bank to co-operative sugar factories, saying that loans were sanctioned despite weak financials of the factories, in many cases without any collateral. The factories were then shown to be sick and allegedly sold to close relatives of certain politicians.
An inspection by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) as well as a charge-sheet filed by a quasi-judicial inquiry commission under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies (MCS) Act had blamed the “decisions, actions and inactions” of Ajit and the other accused for the loss.
The NABARD audit report had also revealed a breach of several banking laws and RBI guidelines by the accused in the distribution of loans to sugar factories and spinning mills, and subsequent default on repayment and recovery of such loans.
The case had prompted the NCP to cry political vendetta, especially since the senior Pawar was not a director or a functionary of the bank.
Source say his name was added to the list of accused persons after the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) recorded the statement of a witness who gave “inside details” of how the senior leader had played a key role in the scam. The ED has now asked the EOW office to hand over the statement for further probe.
The ED case against Chhagan Bhujbal
NCP leader and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal was in March 2016 arrested by the ED on charges of money laundering, criminal misconduct, conspiracy and cheating.
The allegation against Bhujbal are that he allegedly gave a contract to a firm, KS Chamankar Enterprises, in 2005 without inviting tenders, when he was the PWD minister.
According to the case, the builder allegedly got the development rights of a slum on RTO land in Andheri, with the condition that Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi, the RTO building in Andheri and a guest house on Malabar Hill be constructed in return.
ED alleged that the Bhujbals — Chaggan and his nephew Sameer Bhjbal, received kickbacks.
Bhujbal also faces allegations of receiving kickbacks for the construction contract amounting to Rs 100 crore for the new Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi. Part of this money, the ED claims, was parked abroad and also routed into India through various shell companies located across the country.
The Maharashtra ACB had in 2016 filed a charge-sheet in the Mumbai Sessions Court against Chhagan Bhujbal and his family members in connection with the Maharashtra Sadan construction scam.
Bhujbal was finally released on bail in May 2018, after he spent two years in jail for the case.
Also read: Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut claims that Ajit Pawar was blackmailed into joining hands with BJP
Praful Patel and his links with Iqbal Mirchi
Though Praful Patel, former civil aviation minister, has not been named as an accused in any of the cases being investigated by either the CBI or ED, the role of the minister is being probed in two major cases — the aviation scam involving businessman Deepak Talwar and a land deal involving Dawood’s aide Iqbal Mirchi.
In June, Patel was summoned twice before the ED for questioning in connection with the Deepak Talwar case.
The ED is probing the Air India-Indian Airlines merger, purchase of 111 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus at Rs 70,000 crore, ceding of profitable routes and schedules to private airlines, and opening of training institutes with foreign investment.
It is also investigating how the money received in Talwar’s accounts was transferred to government employees, including those in the Civil Aviation ministry.
Investigation into the said case revealed Patel’s involvement in awarding favourable air traffic rights to foreign airlines, causing losses to Air India.
Patel’s name came up in the alleged scam in a charge-sheet filed by the ED against Talwar on 30 March. Patel was the civil aviation minister between 2004 and 2011
Before summoning Patel, ED got Deepak Talwar extradited from Dubai in January this year, who allegedly acted as a middleman to favour foreign private airlines, causing huge loss to the national carrier.
The ED has alleged that Talwar was in constant touch with Patel while acting as a middleman in negotiations with foreign private airlines.
ED also said that the agency claimed it was in possession of Patel’s emails that proves his involvement in the said scam.
Last month, Patel’s name also figured in another land deal case linked to Mirchi, which is being probed by ED.
According to the ED, investigation in the case revealed a monetary transaction between Patel’s firm Millennium Developer Private Ltd and Mirchi’s son Asif Memon. The transaction made is said to be a multi-crore transaction where Asif transferred money to the account of Millennium Developers Pvt Ltd.
The agency suspects the transaction to be part of the payment made for a property bought by Mirchi in name of his wife Hazra, sons Asif and Junaid in the Ceejay House high-rise located in the prime Worli area of Mumbai. The property, worth crores, is a 14,000 square feet duplex in Ceejay House which was a high-rise constructed by Patel’s firm Millennium Developers Limited.
Patel has, however, denied the allegations stating there had been no monetary transaction between him or his company and members of Mirchi family.
Patel had claimed that the property given to members of the Mirchi family was in lieu of their possessed tenancy rights which they had bought from a tenant named M.K. Mohammad.
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