Senior NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday appeared before the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in connection with the irrigation scam. The ACB, on Tuesday, had quizzed former irrigation minister and NCP heavyweight Sunil Tatkare. This was the first time a member of the Pawar family was grilled by an anti-corruption agency in Maharashtra.
Though Pawar had received summons in September itself, he excused himself citing Ganesh Chaturti. Later he sought an exemption from personal appearance, which was granted by the ACB. "We then passed on to him a set of questions that was to be answered. However, we were not satisfied with the answers and to seek more clarity asked him to appear in person," said an ACB official.
Pawar, who arrived at the ACB's Worli office at 4:45 pm in white kurta-payjama, did not respond to the waiting media. Sources said that Pawar was quizzed on various aspects of the cost-escalation of the irrigation project. The scam, initially pegged at Rs 70,000 crore, had thrown up names of several ministers and senior officials. It was unearthed after whistleblower Vijay Pandhare joined hands with Aam Aadmi Party leader Anjali Damania to get details under RTI, which stated contracts were scaled up several times with allegations of not even 0.1 percent work being completed.
Vidharbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC), which had some of the contracts, saw sudden inflation in costs. Some of these were alleged to have been done because of direct intervention of Pawar. Though Pawar resigned, he was re-instated as the deputy CM after a white paper by the state government, which his party was part of, absolved him. It also stated that the irrigation work had been more than 0.1 percent.
