An FIR was registered by the Aurangabad rural police late on Wednesday against BJP legislator Prashant Bamb and 15 other persons for alleged embezzlement of funds from the Gangapur Co-operative Sugar Factory.
Mr. Bamb, the BJP’s MLA from Gangapur in rural Aurangabad has been accused, along with the others, of defrauding committee members of the Gangapur Sugar Factory of upto ₹15.75 crore by allegedly using fake documents.
Mr. Bamb, a three-time MLA from Gangapur, who has won consecutive State Assembly elections since 2009, was chairman of the now- dysfunctional Gangapur Co-operative Sugar Factory.
According to the complaint filed by Krushna Patil Dongavkar, the State government had taken control of the factory, which had been shut since 2008 for defaulting on its loan payments.
Following this, the then board of directors had rushed to the local court to prevent the sale of the sugar factory by the concerned bank.
The directors had managed to raise the loan arrears (exceeding ₹15.75 crore) while the court proceedings were on and the sale of the factory was subsequently cancelled. The court had directed the amount to be credited to the factory’s account.
However, a section of the factory’s committee members alleged that Mr. Bamb and the working director, B.M. Patil, have embezzled the fund amount by showing that the factory was a partnership.
The committee members have alleged that Mr. Bamb and Mr. Patil used fake documents to prove their ‘partnership’ and had opened illegal accounts with a local bank to deposit the fund amount.
