Rs 750-crore bank loans to sugar mill linked to Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar under ED lens

MUMBAI: Loans amounting to Rs 750 crore given by four cooperative banks to a sugar mill taken on lease by a company linked to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and his wife, Sunetra, have come under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate during its investigation into a money laundering case.
The ED has issued notices to the four banks, including Pune District Central Co-op Bank Ltd, where Pawar was a director. The ED is investigating the Rs 750 crore loan granted by the banks to Jarandeshwar Sahakari Sugar Karkhana (Jarandeshwar SSK).
The Jarandeshwar SSK was purchased by Guru Commodity Services Pvt Ltd. It immediately leased Jarandeshwar SSK to Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd. A part of the funds utilised towards purchase of the mill was received from Sparkling Soil Pvt Ltd, a company related to Pawar and his wife, the ED had said. The ED saidJarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd and Guru Commodity Services Pvt Ltd were only a proxy owner of Jarandeshwar SSK and actual control rested with Sparkling Soil Pvt Ltd.
Within a month of leasing out the mill, the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank, in which Pawar was one of the directors, had sanctioned Rs 100 crore loan to Jarandeshwar SSK. After a span of a few years, an additional Rs 650 crore loan was granted to Jarandeshwar SSK by Pune DCCB and other banks. The ED is trying to trace the financial trail.
The ED is investigating a money laundering case connected with the Maharashtra State Co-Op Bank (MSCB). It suspects the Rs 750 crore loans taken by Jarandeshwar SSK were diverted for purposes other than declared to the bank. It was alleged that MSCB officials sanctioned loans to sick sugar mills and on default auctioned the assets. It is suspected that the MSCB officials ensured that their relatives or close associates bought the assets at the auction at throwaway prices.
The ED said that while a developer from the city, Omkar Group, had floated the Guru Commodity Services Pvt Ltd by contributing around Rs 29 crore, Rs 10 crore came from another city developer, Shivalik Ventures. The remaining money was arranged by the Pawar-controlled company to purchase the Jarandeshwar SSK for Rs 60 crore in 2010, the ED had said.
The ED has attached Jarandeshwar SSK sugar mill and the attachment notice stated that the auction was carried out in a way that the same could be purchased at an undervalued price by Guru Commodity, which was allegedly a dummy company operated by the Omkar Group.