More than eight weeks after its officials grilled him for more than 12 hours in an alleged money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate has attached land and property worth Rs 50.20 crore belonging to a sugar factory linked to NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s grand nephew and MLA Rohit Pawar.
The land and assets attached comprised 161.30 acres of land, plant & machinery and building structures collectively worth Rs 50.20 crore belonging to M/s Kannad Sahakari Shakar Karkhana (SSK) Ltd, a sugar unit owned by Baramati Agro Ltd., of which Rohit Pawar is the CEO.
The ED carried out the attachment of land and assets belonging to Rohit Pawar-linked sugar unit located at Kannad in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (known previously as Aurangabad) district under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case relating to the alleged illegal sale of sugar mills by Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB)to M/s Baramati Agro Ltd.
The ED is investigating an alleged money laundering case on the basis of an FIR registered by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police under various sections of the PMLA and Indian Penal Code (IPC), following an order passed by the Bombay High Court on August 22, 2019.
In the FIR, the EOW of the Mumbai police had alleged that sugar mills sold fraudulently by the MSCB at a throw away prices to “relatives and private persons” without following due procedures.
Rohit Pawar, the CEO of Baramati Agro Ltd, against whom the Mumbai police registered an FUR in August 2019, faces purported money-laundering charges linked to Rs 25,000 crore MSCB loan disbursal scam. The ED’s charge is that he indulged in ‘diversion of funds’ to a company that made a bid to buy an ailing sugar cooperative factory.
Reacting to the attachment of land and assets belonging to a sugar factory linked to him, Rohit Pawar said: “The ED has chosen to act against on Maha Shivratri day. I am Shiv Bakt. Lord Shiva will definitely cognisance of the injustice done to me. ..The ED action will boomerang on it. From this action, I can foresee that the Lok Sabha election schedule may be announced in the next few days”.
It may be recalled that on January 24, the ED had questioned 38-year-old Rohit Pawar for more than 12 hours in an alleged money laundering case linked to M/s Baramati Agro Ltd in the MSCB loan disbursal scam,
Giving details of the alleged money laundering case registered against the Rohit Pawar-linked sugar mill, the ED officials said: “Our investigations have revealed in order to recover the outstanding loan of Rs 80.56 crore from M/s Kannad SSK Limited, the MSCB took possession of all the assets of the sugar mill by fixing a low reserve price based on a questionnaire valuation report, Apart from M/s Baramati Agro Ltd, two other parties entered into the bidding process. The bidder with the highest bid was technically disqualified on flimsy grounds, whereas other bidders were already business associates of M/s Baramati Agro Ltd with no financial capacity in runninga sugar unit”.
The ED said that the acquisition of the Kannad SSK was “illegal” and assets so acquired were proceeds of crime under the PMLA. 2002. Accordingly provisional attachment order was issued facilitating the attachment of all assets of Kannad SSK
Earlier, the ED had seized assets acquired by M/s Baramati Agro Ltd at a cost of Rs 121.47 crore.