Mumbai, Sep 13 (NIE): The tentacles of a Rs 526 crore scam in the Maharashtra government-run Annabhau Sathe Backward Development Corporation (ASBDC) are likely to spread to the doors of senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar. The BJP-led state government has ordered an inquiry into why Pawar, then the state finance minister, showered favours on ASBDC and gave it an out-of-turn grant of Rs 600 crore during 2012-14. Of the Rs 600 crore, Rs 526 crore was allegedly siphoned off.

The Sunday Standard reported last month that in its investigation report, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) had indicted NCP legislator Ramesh Kadam for siphoning off the government’s money. Kadam stands accused for splurging the money to buy a spacious residential property on Pedder Road, one of the city’s poshest areas, for a whopping Rs 125 crore, and for gifting luxury cars for NCP workers and leaders by forging papers.

“We are investigating why the government provided so much funds to the corporation by going out of the way. We will not spare anyone who will be found to be involved in the scam,” Minister of State for Social Welfare Dileep Kamble told The Sunday Standard. ASBDC works under Kamble’s department.

When asked whether Pawar was under the scanner for his role, Kamble said, “Everyone who was associated with the procedure of sanctioning funds to the corporation is under our lens.”

It was Pawar’s sole decision to sanction huge funds for ASBDC. “Normally, a decision on sanctioning funds is taken by a sub-committee. It has been revealed that Pawar had taken the decision,” an official said.

Former deputy CM Pawar is facing charges of graft in the state’s irrigation scam in which the costs of several projects were escalated by hundreds of crores of rupees. The scam in ASBDC could be the only case in which there is strong documentary evidence against him. Pawar was minister of water resources for almost a decade before he handled finance and power portfolios.

“Kadam in his confession has stated that he purchased the property through cash transactions. We are verifying whether he is speaking the truth. Rs 125 crore is too big an amount to carry. We will inquire about the seller too,” an official said.

The CID has also found that Kadam also bought properties in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as well. The agency has formed teams to search for these.

Meanwhile, several police stations in western Maharashtra received anonymous phone calls informing them that luxury cars had been found abandoned. The police investigation revealed that the cars had been left behind by the callers themselves, who were NCP workers to whom Kadam had gifted the vehicles.

Kamble confirmed that police have recovered several abandoned luxury cars. “The NCP workers also have shown interest in paying off their cars’ price to escape the clutches of law. They claimed that they were unaware that the cars were purchased from the ASBDC money,” he said.