All directors of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank will be interrogated irrespective of party affiliation: State min

Maharashtra Minister Deepak Kesarkar on Tuesday said that directors of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank will be interrogated in connection with the scam, irrespective of their party affiliation.

"The FIR has been registered on court's order. Not just NCP, there are leaders from Shiv Sena and BJP too. It has nothing to do with parties. It is on all the directors of the bank. FIR has been registered and now investigation will take place," Kesarkar told here.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police on Monday filed an FIR against NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew and party leader Ajit Pawar and 76 others in connection with the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank scam case.

The FIR was registered on the directions of the Bombay High Court during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by activist Surinder Arora in the case.

Leader of opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Vijay Wadettiwar said, "They are saying that it's a scam of Rs 25,000 crore, but according to my information the total assets of the bank are not Rs 25,000 crore."

"When I was the director of the bank, its total assets were just Rs 7,000 crore... The amount of Rs 25,000 in the FIR is exaggerated," Wadettiwar said.

He went on to add that he was the director of the bank for just six-seven months and did not sign any resolution or decision.

"This is purely a work of political vendetta. Though it's after an order from High Court, everyone knows who the people behind those petitioners are. They can inquire us, they can arrest us or they can go to any extent for their purpose of political vendetta, but I would say that may God give them wisdom to use their power and position rightfully," he said.

The case pertains to crores of rupees of loans given by the bank to several compes allegedly on the recommendation of Ajit Pawar and some others, who were directors of the bank between 2005-10.

But compes allegedly never returned the loan money due to which the bank suffered a huge loss. There were alleged irregularities of approximately Rs 25,000 crore in the matter.

( With inputs from ANI )