India News | Maha: Ajit Pawar Refutes Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill Allegations; Evasive Says BJP's Somaiya

Pune, Oct 22 (PTI) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday refuted the allegations leveled against him in connection with Jarandeshwar Sahkari Sugar Karkhana, and said the ED is investigating the matter and the "facts" will come out.

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Pawar said the auction of Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill was carried out by adhering to all the rules and regulations.

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The deputy chief minister gave a list of 65 sugar mills that were either sold through auctions, or given on contract to run, and claimed that some cooperative mills were sold in the range of Rs 3 crore to Rs 10 crore, but nobody was talking about them.

"A central agency is probing the case and the facts will come out. All other agencies of state such as the Anti-Corruption Bureau, CID and inquiry committee chaired by a judge had already probed the allegations in the past," Pawar said.

The auction of Jarandeshwar, which was sold to Guru Commodity Services Pvt Ltd for Rs 65.75 crore, was done following the Bombay High Court's orders, he said.

"As the sugar factory failed to repay the outstanding, the court gave a year's time and asked to put it up for sale if they could not clear the outstanding amounts in that period," he said.

After the sugar factory failed to pay the outstanding, the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) floated a tender to which several companies responded, and as Guru Commodity Services' bid of Rs 65.75 crore was the highest, the bank sold the mill to the company, Pawar said.

When asked about who is the owner of Jarandeshwar Sugar Factory, he said, "Guru Commodity had purchased Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill. After that it was taken by BVG Group to run. However, after BVG suffered losses, they gave it another firm to run," he said.

The deputy chief minister claimed that there are attempts to mislead people by levellng allegations against specific sugar mills.

He said those leveling allegations of dishonesty against him should be ashamed, adding that such people were taking about it being a scam in the range of Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore but all probes, by the CID, ACB, the EOW as well as an inquiry committee, had shown there were no irregularities involved.

In July this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached over Rs 65 crore worth of land, building, plant and machinery of Jarandeshwar SSK's sugar mill at Chimangaon-Koregaon in Satara under the anti-money laundering law.

The ED had claimed the cooperative-run sugar mill was linked to Pawar and his family.

Pawar said he gave a list of 65 sugar mills that were either sold or given on contract to run since 2007 and claimed that some of these cooperative mills were sold in the range of Rs 3 crore to Rs 10 crore, but nobody was talking about them.

He said of the 65, a total of 30 sugar factories were sold by MSC Bank, six by other banks after the state government's nod and three by sugar factories, while 20 factories were given on lease of contract by either MSC Bank or with permission from the state government.

"As far as a sugar mill in Parner is concerned, there was media coverage only for two days, and later, everybody neglected the matter and the allegations," the deputy chief minister said.

"We only expect that the agencies are free to perform as per their way, but they must give everyone the same justice (treatment)," he said, referring to the Jarandeshwar sugar mill case.

Pawar further said that the MSCB has floated a tender to give 10 more cooperative sugar mills to be run on contract basis and those who want to operate can apply.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya said Pawar was evasive and "did not have the guts to answer questions".

Somaiya alleged that Pawar took the Jarandeshwar Sugar factory in the 'benami' way.

"There is no objection over the selling of other sugar factories (which Pawar referred to in his press briefing) but a probe will take place over the corrupt, benami method of purchasing the factory," he said.

Asked about BJP leader Chandrakant Patil's allegations that prices of fuel are soaring in the state because of Pawar's stand of not endorsing fuel to come under GST, the minister said he was not responsible for the rising fuel prices in the state.

"If the Centre reduces taxes on fuel, the state government will definitely think about it," the Deputy CM said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)