AJIT PAWAR IN ED CROSSHAIR

Former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar may land in trouble with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over his alleged involvement in the multi-crore irrigation scam. It is learnt that the Enforcement Directorate has written to the anti-corruption bureau seeking details of Pawar’s involvement in the scam.

MUMBAI: Former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar may land in trouble with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over his alleged involvement in the multi-crore irrigation scam.

It is learnt the ED has written to the anti-corruption bureau seeking details of Pawar’s involvement in the scam.

The ACB has been investigating the irrigation scam, which rocked the former Democratic Front government in 2011, for the past two years and-five months. While the investigation agency has filed one charge sheet and two First Information Reports (FIR) in two of the irrigation projects under the scanner, senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) politicians accused in the scam, Pawar and former irrigation minister Sunil Tatkare, have so far not been indicted in these cases. Sources in the government told HT Pawar could be in trouble with his alleged links in two specific projects — Balganga dam in Konkan or the irrigation contracts given to the Raj Group. HT had reported in July 2015 how Pawar’s direct links to the irrigation scam could be traced to one of the firms that had bagged several contracts during the Congress-NCP tenure. The directors of this group included kin of Pawar and his close associate. Records from the ministry of corporate affairs had also shown Pawar had business links with the contractor, which were later relinquished.