ED attaches Rs 50 cr worth assets of sugar mill owned by Sharad Pawar's grandnephew Rohit Pawar
New Delhi, Mar 8: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has attached assets worth more than Rs 50 crore of a sugar mill owned by a company of Rohit Pawar, the grandnephew of NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar.
The action pertains to the money laundering investigation being conducted by the federal agency in the alleged Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam.
A total of 161.30 acres of land, plant, machinery and building of the Kannad Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Limited (Kannad SSK) located in Kannad village of Aurangabad district has been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said in a statement.
The total value of these assets is Rs 50.20 crore, it said.
The Kannad SSK is "owned" by Baramati Agro Ltd., a company of Rohit Pawar. He is also an MLA of the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The ED claimed the "acquisition" of Kannad SSK by Baramati Agro Ltd was illegal and hence assets so acquired are "proceeds of crime" under the PMLA.
The 38-year-old legislator from Karjat-Jamkhed assembly seat of Maharashtra has been questioned by the ED twice in the past after it searched the premises of Baramati Agro, Kannad SSK and some others in January.
The agency said the MSCB, in order to recover an outstanding loan of Rs 80.56 crore of Kannad SSK Limited, took possession of all its assets on 13.07.2009 under the SARFAESI Act.
The MSCB conducted an auction on 30.08.2012 of Kannad SSK by fixing a "very low" reserve price based on a questionable valuation report, the ED alleged.
"Apart from Baramati Agro Ltd., two other parties entered into the bidding process. The bidder with the highest bid was technically disqualified on flimsy ground, whereas the other bidder was already a close business associate of Baramati Agro Ltd. with no financial capacity or experience of running a sugar unit," it said.
Rohit Pawar had earlier told reporters that the EOW has "filed a closure report" in the case for which he was being interrogated by the ED.
"I was in business first before entering politics. I haven't done anything wrong. Those in government should know I am not scared. Those who got scared ran away," Rohit Pawar had said in a veiled dig at his uncle, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who broke ranks and joined the Eknath Shinde government in July 2023.
The MSCB money laundering case stems from an August 2019 FIR of the Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
The scam pertains to an allegation that the SSKs were fraudulently sold by the then officers and directors of MSCB at throw-away prices to their relatives/private persons without following the due procedure.
The ED has filed three charge sheets till now as part of this case case investigation and had attached assets worth Rs 121.47 crore.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
