Maharashtra State Coop Bank Scam Case: Ajit Pawar Gets Clean Chit Posthumously
Mumbai court has accepted EOW's closure report and found the accused had no 'intent to commit fraud' in the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam.
Published : March 17, 2026 at 1:33 PM IST
Mumbai: A court in Mumbai has accepted the 'C-Summary' report filed by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police in an alleged Rs 25,000 crore scam at the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB), giving clean chit to former Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister late Ajit Pawar.
The 'C-Summary' report was filed by EOW on February 27.
Noting, 'there appeared to be no intent on the part of the applicants to commit fraud or misappropriation in connection with the alleged Rs 25,000 crore scam at the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank', Special Sessions Judge Mahesh Jadhav at the Mumbai Sessions Court accepted the closure report. A copy of this order was made available late on Monday.
Consequently, the court has granted relief to late Ajit Pawar, his wife and current deputy CM, Sunetra Pawar, along with 75 others.
In its order, the court stated that the investigating agency found no evidence indicating that the accused committed any embezzlement, fraud, or misuse of public funds. "There is no concrete evidence to suggest that the property entrusted to public servants was utilised for personal gain, nor is there any proof of fraudulent activity," the court observed.
"It does not appear that any forged documents were created. No evidence was found indicating any pre-planning or criminal conspiracy among the bank directors to engage in unlawful acts," the order stated adding, "Mere procedural errors or non-compliance with regulations cannot be construed as a direct criminal offense."
The court noted that approximately Rs 850 crore has already been recovered in this case, and the process for recovering the remaining amount is currently underway. Furthermore, it dismissed over 20 'protest petitions' that had challenged the closure report.
In its verdict, the court concluded, "the investigation into this matter revealed no evidence of any undue financial gain accruing to the directors or officials. It was further noted that the loans in question had been granted against collateral."
The investigation did not reveal that officials and directors of MSCB as well as the public representatives holding office at the time had colluded to falsify documents, commit misappropriation, or misuse their official positions during the loan sanctioning and recovery processes of the State Cooperative Bank.
No evidence was found to substantiate the allegations leveled by the complainant, Surinder Arora. Consequently, the inquiry into the loans sanctioned by MSCB to various cooperative societies did not uncover the commission of any cognisable offense.
Drawing this conclusion, the EOW filed a closure report in the Mumbai Sessions Court in 2020, stating there was no criminal offence. This move brought relief to all the political leaders accused in this case, including Ajit Pawar, who was in power at the time.
Subsequently, following a change of government, the EOW submitted an application to the court seeking permission to conduct a fresh investigation into the matter.
Opposing the EOW's initial closure report, senior social activist Anna Hazare along with influential figures from the cooperative sector, Shalinitai Patil and Manikrao Jadhav, as well as Kisan Kawad, a member of a sugar factory in Ahmednagar, had filed protest petitions in this matter. Furthermore, the ED had also submitted an intervention application.
Although the court rejected the ED's application for intervention, the hearings on all the protest petitions remained pending. Against this backdrop, the EOW informed the court that it had revised its stance and initiated a re-investigation under Section 173 of the IPC.
Concurrently, the EOW requested the court to return all relevant documents to facilitate this re-investigation. However, subsequently dismissing all other protest petitions, the court accepted only the petition filed by Surendra Mohan Arora, recognising him as the original complainant.
Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank was established in 1961, the Board of Directors and the Chairman disbursed loans worth crores of rupees to various spinning mills and sugar factories. This bank suffered huge financial losses and was driven to the brink of collapse due to the non-repayment of these loans. This Board of Directors included prominent leaders from the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), primarily, Ajit Pawar, Sunetra Pawar, Hasan Mushrif, Madhukar Chavan and Anandrao Adsul from Shiv Sena.
A petition was filed demanding a CBI inquiry into this scam and seeking strict punitive action against those involved. Taking cognisance of this, the Bombay High Court, in August 2019, directed the investigating agencies to register direct criminal cases against the individuals implicated in this matter. Challenging these directives issued by the Bombay High Court, Vasantrao Shinde, Amrish Pandi, Nilesh Sarnaik, Siddharamappa Alure, Anandrao Adsul, and Ramprasad Bordikar filed petitions in the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court's orders, affirming that the directive to register criminal cases and initiate action against the directors of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank was entirely appropriate.
Consequently, in connection with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam, the Rs 25,000 crore loan disbursement fraud, specifically the EOW and Mumbai Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) at the Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Marg Police Station in Mumbai under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 420, 409, 406, 465, 467, 468, 34, and 120(B).
Shockwaves were felt in political circles with the inclusion of leaders from the Congress, NCP, BJP, and Shiv Sena in the list of accused. Hereafter, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was subsequently constituted to conduct an inquiry into this state-level scam.
Also Read
