Will visit ED office on Friday, make myself available for investigation: Sharad Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said that he will visit the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office here on Friday and make himself available to the agency for their investigation in the money laundering case, in which he has been named.

"I will go to Enforcement Directorate on September 27 at 2 pm and make myself available to the agency for whatever investigation that want to conduct," said Pawar while addressing a press conference here today.

The veteran leader said due to the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections he will be mostly outside Mumbai during the next one month which "should not be taken as his non-cooperation in the ED's investigation".

"I want to clarify that I have never been a member of the administrative board of any cooperative bank in my life. I have full faith in the constitution and will fully cooperate with the agency. However, for one month I will visit as many districts as possible in the wake of Maharashtra Assembly elections. It should not be taken by the agency as my non-availability," said Pawar.

Single-phase voting for Maharashtra Assembly elections will be held on October 21 and the counting of votes is scheduled on October 24.

On September 23, The NCP chief, party leader Ajit Pawar and others were named in an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in connection with the Rs 5,000 crore Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam case.

Apart from Pawar, his nephew Ajit Pawar, Diliprao Deshmukh, Isharlal Jain, Jayant Patil, Shivaji Rao Nalvade, Anand Rao Adsul, Rajendra Shingane, Madan Patil and some others have been named in the case.

The investigation has been initiated based on the FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police following directions from the Bombay High Court, ED sources said.

On September 2, the Supreme Court had declined to entertain Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) seeking to quash the investigation against NCP leader Ajit Pawar and others in connection with the MSCB scam case.

The case pertains to loans given by the bank amounting to crores of rupees to some companies allegedly on the recommendation of Ajit Pawar and some others, who were directors of the bank between the years 2005-2010. The bank had to suffer losses as the companies never returned the loan.