Mumbai: A special court for MP/MLA cases that last month accepted the economic offences wing’s closure report in the Rs 25,000-crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam case involving the late Ajit Pawar, deputy CM Sunetra Pawar and their nephew Rohit Pawar held in many instances that “no loss was caused to the bank due to allotment of loan” and concluded that “no personal wrongful gain is acquired by the directors”. It held that the accused hatched no criminal conspiracy.Giving relief to Rohit’s company, Baramati Agro, it said the due legal process was followed in the 2012 auction of Kannad Sahakari Sugar Factory. The detailed 127-page common order made available on Monday. The allegations centred on 31 district central cooperative banks under MSCB that granted loans to sugar factories, which later defaulted. It was alleged that the subsequent auctioning of these factories favoured the kin of bank office-bearers. But, special judge Mahesh K Jadhav categorised these as administrative “civil wrongs”, rather than criminal acts. In the case of five of the entities, it was alleged that the MSCB board of directors, including Ajit Pawar, sanctioned illegal loans and provided favourable terms to units in which they had financial or personal interests. The judge said the official statutory reports, the statements of witnesses and documentary evidence do not demonstrate the commission of cognisable offences. “Therefore, all protest petitions, including protest petition of the original complainant, deserve to be rejected and ‘C’ summary report (closure report) is liable to be accepted.” The judge rejected protest petitions from 50 individuals, including social activist Anna Hazare, who had opposed the clean chit. The judge said the available record did not show mens rea (intention to deceive). “Merely because some directions of Nabard are not followed, [it] did not amount to cognisable offence… Mere irregularity or lapses cannot be converted to the offences. There is absence of dishonest or fraudulent intention on the part of the accused. There is absence of dishonest or fraudulent or misappropriation of property for own use which is entrusted with the public servant... There is no document which is called to be a forged one,” the judge noted. The judge found that the directors’ actions were largely influenced by special relief packages like the ‘Mitra package’, designed to support the sugar industry during periods of financial crisis. “There is no evidence which shows that the investigation is negligent. It does not seem to be a tampering evidence or tailored investigation,” the order said. The judge pointed out that the recovery process is ongoing and that Rs 850 crore has been recovered so far, asserting that MSCB “is funding cooperative societies and protecting public money”. On allegations of irregularities against Jarandeshwar Sugar Factory, to which ED had linked Ajit Pawar and Sunetra, the judge observed that the transactions did not constitute a criminal offence. On the allegation that Jai Ambika Sugar Factory was granted a Rs 94.9-crore loan without collateral in meetings that also included Ajit Pawar, the judge observed that a govt guarantee had been obtained years prior and that the bank had actively sought recovery through the cooperative court. The order noted that in the case of Jalna Sugar Factory, the auction generated Rs 42.3 crore, resulting in a surplus of Rs 9 crore over the dues. In the case of Kannad Sahakari Sugar Factory, the loan was declared a secured one and Baramati Agro (the purchaser) was found to be in “sound possession” to pay, it noted.
