Mumbai: AAP leader Anjali Damania today levelled a slew of graft charges against former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and alleged that he awarded contracts to his relatives and people close to him when he was in office, charges rubbished by his party NCP.

Addressing a press conference here, she said that Ajit, while holding office, formed several companies involving his close relatives and helped them by flouting all prescribed norms and siphoned off money from the state exchequer. During his stint as a Minister in the previous Congress-NCP government, the 56-year-old politician held several key portfolios like Irrigation, Planning, Energy Water Supply and Sanitation, Rural Development and Finance. Among these his most controversial stint was in the Irrigation Department, where a multi-crore scam came to light in 2012.