ACB clean chit to Ajit Pawar in Vidarbha Irrigation scam

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has submitted another affidavit to the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court and given a clean chit to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar in the alleged Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) scam.

"As regard role of respondent number 7 (Ajit Pawar), no criminal liability is disclosed during the course of enquiry/investigation by the special investigation teams," the ACB said in the affidavit filed on Thursday.

The affidavit was filed by the agency's Director-General Param Bir Singh.

It said that the open enquiry into 45 tenders has been closed as no criminal offences were disclosed in the matter.

The agency also cleared Pawar's name in the irrigation scam in an affidavit dated November 27 submitted to the court.

Pawar, along with others, was in-charge of Maharashtra's irrigation department when the Congress-NCP coalition government was in power in the state from 1999 to 2014.

That was a period during which the alleged scam, relating to irregularities in various irrigation projects, took place.