NCP MLA Rohit Pawar, grand nephew of party supremo Sharad Pawar, was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for eight hours on Thursday in a case related to the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam.
This was the second time that Rohit Pawar, who is affiliated to the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, appeared before the ED in the last 10 days in connection with the money laundering case.
The 38-year-old MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed was earlier questioned by the agency on January 24.
On Thursday, he reached the ED’s office situated at Ballard Estate in South Mumbai at 1.05 pm, and left after 9 pm.
His family members accompanied him to the agency’s office earlier in the day. As he emerged from the building late in the evening, NCP workers greeted him by shouting slogans.
Sharad Pawar’s wife Pratibha Pawar was present at the NCP office located nearby when the legislator appeared before the ED.
Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule are currently in New Delhi for the Parliament session.
Hundreds of NCP workers, who had come from across the state, gathered at the NCP office here as well as near the ED’s establishment and staged an agitation against the agency’s summons to Rohit Pawar. NCP workers also staged a protest in Pune.
A large number of police personnel were deployed near the ED office and barricades were placed on roads leading to it.
The Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank money laundering case stems from an August 2019 FIR of the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing.
The ED conducted searches on January 5 on the of Baramati Agro, a company owned by Rohit Pawar, and some linked entities in Baramati, Pune, Aurangabad and some other locations.
The case was registered after the Bombay High Court issued an order to investigate allegations that many financially distressed cooperative sugar factories in Maharashtra were sold to private entities at throwaway prices.
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