A special court in Mumbai today accepted the closure report filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in the ₹25,000-crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) case, thus giving a clean chit to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, late Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and over 70 others in the case.

The Court also dismissed protest pleas filed by activist Anna Hazare and others as well as an intervention plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Special judge Mahesh Jadhav accepted the C-summary report which said that no criminal offence was made out in the alleged loan and recovery irregularities involving cooperative sugar factories.

The order also endorsed EOW’s finding that there was “no criminal offence” in the transactions related to Ajit Pawar, Sunetra Pawar, their relatives and other entities.

A detailed copy of the order is awaited.

The case originated after the Bombay High Court in 2019 ordered registration of FIRs on allegations that MSCB and district cooperative banks issued interest-free loans to sugar factories to create loan accounts in favour of players linked with bank officials and politicians.

The firms were also alleged to have sold unit assets at rock-bottom prices later.

The EOW’s 35-page closure report examined three key transactions and found no criminal irregularities in sanctioning loans or selling sugar factories, including the Jarandeshwar Sugar Sahakari Karkhana in Satara.

It was alleged that the factories were found to be unviable, then declared as non-performing assets, and sold at throwaway prices to companies linked with relatives of bank officials and politicians, including those owned by the Pawar family.

The EOW has now stated that there was no loss to the bank, and added it had recovered over ₹1,343 crore from loans under investigation.

The ruling is likely to have an impact on the ED’s money-laundering case linked to the matter as the ED case depends on the EOW FIR as a predicate offence.

In this case, ED has filed two charge sheets.