New ACB affidavit in irrigation scam puts Pawar clean chit under cloud

Maharashtra's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director Parambir Singh has retracted a statement he made about his predecessor overlooking a key communication from the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) that was key to granting former water resources development (WRD) minister and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar a clean chit in a multi-crore-rupee irrigation scandal.

Singh has claimed that VIDC's communication, dated 26 March, 2018 was received by the ACB's Amravati office along with a report dated 20 March, 2018, which cited section 25 of the VIDC Act to justify the bypassing of the state government and submitting files directly to the then WRD Minister.

The then ACB director, Sanjay Barve, in an affidavit filed on November 26, 2018, had rejected the justification offered by VIDC in its communication dated March 26, 2018 in response to one sent by ACB superintendent of police (Amravati) trying to exonerate Pawar of any wrongdoing and justifying his orders to send files directly to him.

Justifying the U-turn by the ACB, Parambir Singh had claimed that his predecessor did not notice one VIDC report of March 26, 2018 that was filed in response to a query by the SP to WRD ministry and that its reports weren't mentioned by him to n his 2018 affidavit.

Parambir Singh, in a personal affidavit filed before the Nagpur benchof the Bombay high court, offered an apology for making a sweeping statement about his predecessor ignoring the VIDC's communication.

He said his predecessor mentioned the VIDC report, but "does not deal with it in remaining portion of his affidavit" and cited a high court order which asked ACB to complete the scrutiny of the communication.

The seemingly innocuous affidavit filed by ACB head has raised a question mark over the clean chit offered to Ajit Pawar by the ACB, which concluded that there had been no criminal liability on his part .

Barve, in his November 26, 2018 affidavit, had clearly stated that there had been a "recurring pattern" in the irrigation scam, citing the inflating of tender costs and awarding of work to favoured contractors.

(Image and inputs from hindustantimes.com)