Court Relief To Ex-Maharashtra Minister, Father In Bank Scam Case

A special court here on Friday granted bail to former Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Prajakt Tanpure and his father Prasad Tanpure in connection with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam case.

Special judge R N Rokde also granted bail to the other accused in the case, including Congress leader Ranjeet Deshmukh, Shiv Sena leader Arjunrao Panditrao Khotkar, builder Jugal Kishor Tapadiya and industrialist Padmakar Muley.

After taking cognisance of two supplementary chargesheets filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the court had last month asked the accused to appear before it on January 12.

Accordingly, the accused appeared before the court and sought bail after marking their presence.

The former minister and the others have been named as accused in the chargesheets, but the probe agency has never arrested them.

Mr Tanpure was a junior minister of state for urban development, energy, tribal development, higher and technical education and disaster management in the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

His father, Prasad Tanpure, is a former Member of Parliament.

The case pertains to an alleged scam in the Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana (SSK) – co-operative sugar factories – and Sahakari Soot Girnis.

The ED’s action is based on an FIR dated August 26, 2019, registered by the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The FIR was lodged after an order of the Bombay High Court on August 22 that year over allegations that the cooperative sugar factories known as Sahkari Sakhar Karkhana (SSKs) were fraudulently sold by then officials and directors of Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) at throwaway prices to related entities without following due procedure.

Investigations conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act found that MSCB undertook auction of Ram Ganesh Gadkari SSK in 2007 at an undervalued price and without following due process.

The said SSK was sold to Prasad Sugar and Allied Agro Products Ltd, a firm of Prajakt Tanpure, for a mere Rs 12.95 crore against the reserve price of Rs 26.32 crore.