ED summons Sharad Pawar's grandnephew in MSCB money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Maharashtra MLA Rohit Pawar, a grandnephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, for questioning on January 24 as part of its money laundering probe into the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam, official sources said Friday.

The federal agency had raided the premises of Baramati Agro, a company owned by Rohit Pawar, and some linked entities on January 5 in Baramati, Pune, Aurangabad and some other locations.

Rohit Pawar, 38, is a first-time NCP MLA from the Karjat-Jamkhed seat in the Maharashtra assembly and is the owner and CEO of Baramati Agro.

He belongs to the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Rohit Pawar is the nephew of Baramati MP Supriya Sule, and the state's deputy chief minister and Baramati MLA Ajit Pawar.

The Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank money laundering case stems from an August 2019 FIR of the Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing.

Reacting to the raids, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar Group) had said Rohit Pawar's 'Yuva Sangharsh Yatra' had "hit a nerve" and made the BJP insecure.

The ED probe against his firm pertains to allegations of "diversion" of funds and deposit of earnest funds of a company that bid for the purchase of a Maharashtra-based ailing cooperative sugar factory, sources had said.