Pawar calls off visit to ED office, says won't be scared off

Mumbai: After creating a stir with his announcement that he would voluntarily visit the Enforcement Directorate office here, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, named in a money-laundering case, cancelled the plan on Friday.

The BJP, meanwhile, pointed out that the probe in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam, over which the ED has filed the case, began when a Congress-NCP government was in power.

Pawar said he decided not to go to the ED office after Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve met him at his residence and requested him to reconsider his plan.

The ED too had conveyed to him on Thursday that his presence was not required, for now, he said.

Expecting protests by Nationalist Congress Party workers, the police had imposed prohibitory orders in south Mumbai where the ED's office is located.