Close on the heels of giving a formal go-ahead to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for an “open enquiry” into corruption charges against three senior NCP leaders, the BJP-led Maharashtra Government has now turned up the heat on two State Congress leaders, including a former senior Minister in the previous Democratic Front (DF) Cabinet.
Informed official sources said here on Wednesday that the State Home department – having taken serious cognisance of an alleged Rs144-crore scam in the Dhule District Central (DDC) Cooperative Bank allegedly involving former State Co-operation Minister Harvardhan Patil and bank’s board of directors – had routed the relevant file to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis through the State Chief Secretary Swadhin Kshatriya and sought an “open enquiry” into the role of the former Congress Minister in the scam. “We expect the Chief Secretary’s office to seek a formal clearance for an open enquiry against Patil in the next few days,” a senior Home department official said.
The State Home department, headed by Fadnavis himself, has initiated an “open enquiry” into corruption charges against Patil based on a complaint made by BJP MlA Anil Gote. Gote has in his complaint alleged that one of board of directors, reportedly close to the former Congress Minister, had extended unsecured loans worth Rs166 crore to his own loss-making co-operative body, Priyadarshini Cotton Co-Operative Society which owed to the tune of over Rs300 crore to different banks. The DDC Co-operative Bank had failed to recover loans to the tune of Rs144 crore from the Priyadarshini Cotton Co-operative Society.
In his complaint, Gote claimed that Patil had deliberately turned a blind eye to the alleged misappropriation of funds in the DDC Co-Operative Bank despite his having made repeated complaints to the former State Co-operation Minister against alleged irregularities in the bank. Apart from seeking an enquiry into the alleged role of Patil in the scam, the State Home department has made a strong case for a comprehensive probe into the allegations of corruption indulged in State legislative Council member Amrish Patel. The impending “open enquiry” by the ACB against Patil and Patel is the third of its kind being launched by the BJP-led saffron alliance Government ever since it assumed office in the first week of November this year.
Earlier this month, the Devendra Fdnavis-led saffron alliance Government has ordered open enquiries by the ACB against former deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and two other senior NCP leaders Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal in two alleged corruption cases. While Fadnavis had ordered “open enquiries” against Ajit Pawar and Tatkare in the alleged multi-thousand crore irrigation scam, the State Government initiated a separate ‘open enquiry” against former PWD Minister Bhujbal into allegations of corruption and favouritism in construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi and two other Government buildings in Mumbai built under Private Public Partnership.