MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate suspects that an approximately Rs 750-crore loan taken by a Satara-based sugar factory which was leased out to a company linked to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar was diverted for purposes other than those declared to the bank.
The ED has attached now land, buildings and machinery at the Jarandeshwar Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana (Jarandeshwar SSK) in connection with the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) money laundering case. The agency said Mumbai-based builder, Omkar Developers, floated a company named Guru Commodity Services Pvt Ltd, which was used to purchase Jarandeshwar SSK in an auction at an undervalued price after it defaulted on a loan from MSCB. Guru Commodity and Mumbai-based Shivalik group coughed up funds to purchase the mill in a Rs 65-crore transaction, along with an Ajit Pawar-controlled company.
After purchasing the mill, Guru Commodity leased it out to to a group company of Ajit Pawar called Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd, said the ED attachment notice. The attachment notice said Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills in connivance with Guru Commodity Services later obtained a loan of more than Rs 700 crore and created various rights in the leased sugar mill.
The notice further added Guru Commodity immediately shifted control of Jarandeshwar SSK “to group company of Ajit Pawar i.e. Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd under the guise of taking the said property on lease.” The premises of Jarandeshwar SSK was utilized by Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills to avail loans of Rs 700+ crore from various banks, the ED said.
