Mumbai: A day after registering an offence in the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) fraud case, EOW has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the scam.
On Monday, EOW registered a FIR against NCP leader and former deputy chief minister of state Ajit Pawar and other politicians of the state.
"We have formed a SIT that will be headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police level officer. First, we will gather all the necessary documents and then proceed further. But this will take time," said an officer from EOW.
Last week, the Bombay High Court directed EOW to register a FIR in the MSCB scam. After the directions, EOW on Monday registered a case under IPC sections of cheating (420) criminal breach of trust by public servant (409), criminal breach of trust(406), forgery (465,467, 468), criminal conspiracy(120,b) and 34 (common intention) and under the sections of prevention of corruption act at the MRA Marg police station.
"As a result of the scam, the state exchequer suffered losses of Rs 25,000 crore between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2017," stated the FIR. Around 76 people were named as accused in the FIR including Pawar and many other from state politics.
Last week, Justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Sandeep Shinde said in their order that the police had not filed an FIR in the case despite a 2009-10 inspection report of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
HC has also pointed to the a charge sheet filed by a quasi- judicial inquiry commission under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies (MCS) Act, which stated, the decisions and the actions of the accused had caused financial losses to the the MSCB.