After reports that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has been given a clean chit in the 70,000 crore irrigation scam began circulating, the state's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has stepped in with a clarification.
Reportedly, the Maharashtra government on Monday closed investigation into 9 of the 20 FIRs registered against Ajit Pawar.
Speaking to ANI, the ACB said, "The name of Ajit Pawar or any other officer did not figure in any of the nine enquiries that were closed today."
"No irregularities were found in these. These are routine enquiries. We are investigating a total of 2,654 enquiries..." DG, Parambir Singh added.
According to ANI, sources in the Maharashtra ACB said that the cases that were closed today were conditional and could be reopened if more information came to light or if the courts order further inquiry.
According to these sources, the the list of cases being circulated on social media, none of the cases belong to alleged irrigation corruption case against Pawar.
In related news, on Saturday, Ajit Pawar joined hands with the BJP and took oath as the deputy CM along with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Allegedly Ajit Pawar, while he was the Water Resources Minister between 1999 and 2009, had approved 38 projects worth Rs 20,000 crore in 2009 by tweaking rules and without clearance of Governing Council of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC).
Moreover, even after huge amounts, it appeared that there wasn't any notable rise in irrigated land in the state, with the percentage of irrigation potential increasing by only 0.1 percent in10 years, despite a total spending of Rs 70,000 crore.
Ajit had received a clean chit in 2012 when Prithviraj Chavan was the CM but when Devendra Fadnavis became the Chief Minister in 2014, he restarted the alleged scam.
After the news broke, Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi slammed the BJP. "Cases closed, corruption charges dropped, shamelessness to be in power exposed," she wrote.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala wrote, "‘Contract Killing’ of democracy has now also become ‘Contract Killing’ of honesty & accountability in Maharashtra. No wonder, the only decision taken in ‘public interest’ by BJP-Ajit Pawar is to close all cases of corruption & malfeasance."
