Mumbai, Oct 17 (PTI) Mumbai police's Economic Offence Wing (EOW) told a special court on Monday that it had begun further probe into the alleged Rs 25000-crore scam in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB).

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The case pertains to loans of several thousand crore rupees obtained by sugar cooperatives, spinning mills and other entities from district and cooperative banks, and the First Information Report of the EOW had named senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar among the accused.

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The development comes over two years after the EOW had filed a closure report in the case in September 2020 stating its special investigation team had found no criminal aspect.

On Monday, the EOW, represented by Ajay Misar, informed the special court for MPs and MLAs the probe agency is conducting further investigation into the matter based on the points raised by protest petitioners and Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The probe agency also filed an application for return of documents to file the matter further.

The court has adjourned the matter for hearing on November 18.

The EOW had filed a closure report in September 2020 in the alleged Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Co-operative (MSC) Bank scam.

The ED opposed the closure report claiming the (EOW) probe was flawed. The closure report was also opposed by the original complainant in the case.

However, the court, at the time, had rejected the protest petitions and accepted the police's closure report.

The EOW had filed a first information report (FIR) in the case under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating), the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act.

The FIR had named senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and more than 70 others, who were directors of the MSC Bank during the relevant period. The case was registered following a High Court order of August 2019.

As per the FIR, the state exchequer suffered losses of Rs 25,000 crore between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2017 due to irregularities in the bank.

It said Reserve Bank of India regulations were violated while disbursing loans to sugar mills at very low rates and assets of defaulter businesses were sold at throwaway prices.

(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)