VIDC scam: ED starts probe under PMLA

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun a money laundering probe based on some FIRs filed in the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) scam, popularly referred as the irrigation scam.

Maharashtra’s anti-corruption bureau (ACB) has cleared deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar of the allegations in connection with the irrigation scam, according to an affidavit filed in the Bombay high court (HC) late last year.

Sources said ED has recently filed cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and are probing few FIRs linked to the scam. The irrigation scam involves 44 projects spread over Vidarbha and Konkan, and the probe has so far led to 24 FIRs and 5 charge sheets.

The scam was one of the political issues in the run-up to the 2014 state elections. Shortly after his victory, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis opened the case against Pawar.

The ACB had earlier accused Pawar, who was the irrigation minister between 1999 and 2009, of presiding over a regime in which “procedures were bypassed, pecuniary benefits were passed on, sub-standard work was allowed, leading to drain upon public exchequer”. However, in recent affidavits, the ACB has given him a clean chit saying he had no role in the cost upgradation or the mobilisation of advance.

ACB had further said there was no evidence of money trail linking Pawar and suggested that the scam was a result of procedural irregularities, departmental lapses and deviations for which the minister could not be held responsible.

The irrigation scam came to the fore in 2012 wherein it was revealed that even after spending ₹42,500 crore for a decade, the state had brought only 0.1% of the targeted land under irrigation. It was revealed that a nexus of contractors, officials and politicians had milked thousands of crores meant for irrigation projects.