Pune: Terming the day long drama over Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar’s aborted visit to the Enforcement Directorate’s office in Mumbai as “political high drama”, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Chandrakant Patil on Friday claimed that it was the erstwhile Congress-led government headed by then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan that had first ordered a probe in the alleged Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank scam.
Speaking to newspersons here in Pune, Patil rubbished the NCP’s allegations that the BJP was indulging in political vendetta against Pawar. The state BJP president remarked “I should remind the NCP that it was their own previous government (Congress-NCP) which used to act on the advice of Sharad Pawar, that had first launched a probe in the MSC bank case”. He further stated that it was the then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan who had initiated an inquiry into the case by setting up a committee as he had suspected some irregularities.
Commenting on the MSC bank issue, he said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had appointed an administrator over the bank, an individual later moved the Bombay High Court on grounds that no proper inquiry was being initiated. “It was on the court’s direction that an FIR was recently registered. So where is the question of the state government acting in a vindictive manner against the Pawar’s. The ED is an autonomous agency, registered a case on its own as the amount involved in the scam was above Rs 100 crore,” Patil pointed out.
Patil further argued that the NCP was trying to garner people’s sympathy and support by spreading “false propaganda” to the effect that it was the BJP government which was behind the ED’s probe. “But people are smart as they know that when (senior NCP leader) Chhagan Bhujbal was arrested, there were no protests on part of the NCP workers,” Patil said, remarking that the NCP’s protestors were “coerced” as the party was not garnering much support from the people.
