Mumbai : In a major development, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police is investigating the alleged multicrore Mahananda Dairy scam. The first FIR was registered at Vanrai Police station involving the misappropriation of Rs 65 crore at Milk Co-operative society at Bhoom Taluk.
The Maharashtra State Cooperative Milk Federation, also known as Mahananda came under scrutiny after the audit department brought to light misappropriation of over Rs 100 crore over the period of three years starting from 2009. The details of the report were brought into the open after the government changed hands in 2014.
Many leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are suspected to have been involved in the scam to the tune of ateast Rs 125 crore. Mahananda’s then managing director Shivaji Talekar was also found to be involved and was arrested by the police along with 14 other officials and then directors.
In the FIR filed on Jan 18, it is alleged that Rahul Mote, NCP Party member and then president of Milk Co-op society of Bhoom Taluk misused Rs 65 crore allotted to the Cooperative society to purchase essentials from agriculturists.
“Every milk co-op society is allotted a certain amount of money which is decided according to its members and monthly output. The amount of Rs 65 crore was allotted to Bhoom in a special order without proper deliberations. This money was handed over to Rahul Mote but over the years not even a drop of milk reached Mahananda or Bhoom. And none of the members had a clear answer to account for the money,” said Shri Naik, RTI activist.
The investigation in the scam was handed over to the EOW and the Anti Corruption Bureau three months ago. They are looking at the involvement of the board members and also NCP party members from different taluks.
