Mumbai Police persuade Sharad Pawar to stay away from ED office

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, September 27

Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, who threatened to march to the offices of the Enforcement Directorate on Friday after being named in the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank scam, relented after being requested by Mumbai’s police commissioner and other senior officials.

“I have decided not to go to the offices of the Enforcement Directorate on the request of Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve and the Joint Police Commissioner. They visited me today and said
there would be law and order problems if I visited the offices of the ED,” Pawar told reporters this afternoon.

Earlier today, the ED sent a letter to Pawar saying he would be called for questioning at a later day and he need not visit its offices for the moment.

The Enforcement Directorate had named Pawar in the MSCB scam where more than Rs 25,000 crores were allegedly siphoned off by various co-operatives in the state over several decades.

Pawar at his press conference reiterated his allegations that the agencies like the ED were being used by the ruling BJP government to target opposition leaders.

Ahead of Pawar’s proposed visit to the ED’s office at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai, scores of party workers had descended in the city’s old business district causing fears of law and order situation.

Earlier today, Pawar received a major morale booster when the opposition Shiv Sena came out in his support.

“Sharad Pawar was not in office when the MPSB scam happened. There may have been others from the NCP, but Pawar was not an office-bearer of the bank. Taking his name in the scam has created an unhealthy atmosphere in Maharashtra,” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told reporters here.