Pune court summons Ajit Pawar

The dissolved director board of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB), which includes deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, has to appear before the court in Koregaon on November 25 in the ongoing criminal case of ‘fraudulent’ auction of the Jarandeshwar Cooperative Sugar Factory.

First class judicial magistrate SK Tripathi on Friday issued process in the case and ordered the MSCB director board to be present in the court for the next hearing.

In addition to Pawar, all 48 directors of the bank, including chairman Manik Patil, deputy chairman Balasaheb Sarnaik, Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories’ chairman Vijaysinh Mohite Patil and former MP Laxmanrao Patil have been summoned. The MSCB’s director board has been dissolved and the administrators have been appointed by the Reserve Bank of India.

The apex cooperative bank in the state is considered a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bastion.

The sugar factory, led by expelled NCP leader and former MLA Shalinitai Patil, had MSCB’s total debts of around Rs103 crore. For recovering the loan, the MSCB auctioned the factory for Rs65.75 crore to a private firm last year.

Shalinitai Patil, through his supporter DA Ghatge, had filed a criminal case in the court on May 22 for alleged fraudulent auction of the factory. The petitioner has alleged violation of the rules of the cooperative department while auctioning the factory.