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Probe against Ajit Pawar was initiated by NCP, claim Fadnavis and Chavan

Oct 31, 2024 09:05 AM IST

NCP chief and deputy CM Ajit Pawar accused the late RR Patil of betraying him in ordering an inquiry into his alleged involvement in a ₹70,000 crore scam

PUNE: A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar accused the late RR Patil of betraying him in ordering an inquiry into his alleged involvement in a 70,000 crore irrigation scam, two former chief ministers, Prithviraj Chavan and Devendra Fadnavis, on Wednesday claimed the NCP itself initiated the inquiry into the scam following allegations levelled by opposition parties.

Ajit Pawar. (HT FILE)
Ajit Pawar. (HT FILE)

“Though I was chief minister, the irrigation scam never came to me directly,” said Chavan, who headed the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra between 2010 and 2014. Once allegations about the scam arose, the matter was referred to the home ministry headed by NCP leader RR Patil, who initiated the inquiry. “I did not know why he ordered it or who influenced his decision, but Ajit Pawar has held resentment against me for this. He should clarify now that I was not behind starting his inquiry,” said the former chief minister and senior Congress leader.

Fadnavis, who was chief minister from 2014 to 2019, also claimed that he had nothing to do with the inquiry against Pawar. “I normally avoid commenting on leaders who are no longer with us, but I need to clarify that Ajit Pawar’s inquiry began while Congress and NCP were in power in the state,” he said on Wednesday.

The scam pertained to irrigation projects approved during Pawar’s tenure as the state’s water resources development minister between 1999 and 2009. During this period, he also chaired the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation, which approved the projects in question. In 2019, shortly after the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government—comprising Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress—took office in Maharashtra, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cleared Pawar of any wrongdoing in the irrigation scam.

Raking up the controversy on Tuesday, Pawar told a gathering in Tasgaon in Sangli district, “Allegations were made against me in the irrigation scam, and there were efforts to defame me. They claimed a scam of 70,000 crore in irrigation projects, although the total expenses, including salaries, were only around 43,000 crore.”

He claimed that numbers were deliberately inflated to portray it as a massive scam. “A file was sent to the home department led by RR Patil, where he approved an open inquiry and noted it in the file. It was a case of backstabbing from a close colleague,” Pawar said.

He further claimed that after the Fadnavis-led government assumed power in 2014, the chief minister signed the file but called him to inform me about it. “Fadnavis showed me RR Patil’s signature on the file. I was deeply hurt, as Patil had been a trusted colleague,” said Pawar, who engineered a split in the NCP in 2023 and allied with the BJP and Shiv Sena to form the Mahayuti government.

Pawar made the comments while addressing a rally in Tasgaon for NCP candidate Sanjay Kaka Patil, who is running against the late RR Patil’s son Rohit Patil – the candidate put up by the NCP (SP) headed by his uncle Sharad Pawar.

Rohit Patil responded to the comments on Wednesday, saying, “It’s unfortunate that Ajit Pawar made such statements about my father, who is not alive to respond. Had he been here, he could clarify this himself.”

Patil also said that his father had initiated an inquiry into the scam to address opposition claims, believing it would ultimately dismiss the accusations against Pawar.

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