22 April,2026 06:25 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Rohit Pawar. File Photo
A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday discharged NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar and several others in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam. The case had been registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and pertained to alleged financial irregularities amounting to Rs 25,000 crore, reported PTI.
The order was passed by special judge Mahesh Jadhav, who presides over cases involving Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly. The court accepted discharge applications filed by all 17 accused, effectively bringing the ED case to a close, reported PTI.
The ruling comes as a significant development in the long-running probe, which had drawn political attention due to the involvement of prominent figures, including Rohit Pawar.
The ED's money laundering investigation was based on a First Information Report registered in August 2019 by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police. The FIR alleged large-scale irregularities in the sale of cooperative sugar mills, also known as Sahakari Sakhar Karkhanas, reported PTI.
According to the EOW, officials and directors of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank had sold these mills at significantly undervalued prices. The beneficiaries were allegedly relatives of the officials or private entities, and the transactions were said to have bypassed due process.
A key factor in the court's decision was the earlier acceptance of a closure report filed by the EOW. The report effectively stated that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with prosecution in the predicate offence.
Following this, Rohit Pawar and other accused approached the special court seeking discharge from the ED's money laundering case, arguing that the foundation of the case no longer existed, reported PTI.
The court agreed with this contention and ruled in favour of the accused, leading to the closure of proceedings.
The Enforcement Directorate had opposed the discharge applications, maintaining that the matter was still legally active. The agency pointed out that a writ petition filed in 2021, challenging the rejection of its intervention plea, remains pending before the Bombay High Court, reported PTI.
The ED also urged the court to consider the merits of the case independently, highlighting that it had filed one main prosecution complaint along with three supplementary complaints between March 2023 and July 2025.
These complaints named a total of 17 individuals and outlined alleged financial irregularities tied to the functioning of MSCB.
The original EOW investigation had claimed that the state exchequer suffered losses of approximately Rs 25,000 crore between January 2007 and December 2017. These losses were allegedly due to irregularities in loan disbursal and the subsequent sale of assets linked to cooperative sugar factories, reported PTI.
Despite the seriousness of the allegations, the acceptance of the closure report significantly weakened the legal basis for the ED's case.
The discharge of Rohit Pawar and other accused marks a major setback for the ED in one of Maharashtra's high-profile financial investigations. It also carries political implications, given Pawar's position within the NCP (SP) and his prominence in state politics.
(With inputs from PTI)
