MSCB scam: Court discharges NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar, others in ED case

A special court here on Wednesday discharged NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar and others 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).

Special judge for MPs/MLAs cases, Mahesh Jadhav, accepted the discharge applications of all 17 accused and ruled that the case stood closed.

The ED’s money laundering case stemmed from an August 2019 FIR registered by the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) that alleged fraudulent sale of ‘Sahakari Sakhar Karkhanas’ (cooperative sugar mills) by then officers and directors of MSCB at throwaway prices to their relatives or other private persons without following due procedure. However, a special court for MPs/MLAs cases recently accepted the EOW’s closure report in the case.

Rohit Pawar and others, named as accused in the ED’s case, then sought discharge from the money laundering case.

The Central probe agency opposed their pleas, stating that while the closure report was accepted by the lower court, a 2021 writ petition challenging the earlier rejection of its intervention application was still pending before the Bombay High Court.

During the course of investigation, the ED had filed one main ‘prosecution complaint’ and three supplementary complaints between March 2023 and July 2025 against a total of 17 persons.

It urged the court to decide the discharge applications on merit.

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 the disbursal of loans by the bank.