Fresh allegations have surfaced in the Annabhau Sathe Corporation scam with BJP MP Kirit Somaiya now linking more NCP leaders to the misappropriation of funds. However, the papers released by Mr Somaiya give no evidence that the leaders have links to the scam. NCP state president Sunil Tatkare has challenged Mr Somaiya to prove the allegations.
“NCP MLA Ramesh Kadam siphoned off Rs 200 crore of the corporation’s funds and other NCP leaders also misused Rs 150-200 crore, including Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Sunil Tatkare and Madhukar Pichad,” Mr Somaiya said on Thursday.
President of Annabhu Sathe Corporation Ramesh Kadam is already under arrest in connection with the scam.
NCP state president Sunil Tatkare rubbished the allegations and said, “If the allegations turn out to be true, I will quit politics.”
Mr Somaiya has released a few papers alleging that the funds of the corporation were used for elections in 2014. He has given names of 37 leaders who influenced people to get loans from the corporation.
“It is our duty to recommend ways to get loans to the poor people. What is wrong in that All party MLAs do that. How can he say that the funds were misused I had distributed Rs 50 lakh in my constituency to 100-125 people from the Matang community in an official programme. If Somaiya thinks that the funds were misused, then he should complain about it to the CM. It is their government that is ruling,” said NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik, whose name is also in the list.
Interestingly, BJP MLA Sanjay Savakare and another BJP leader Praveen Darekar’s names are also included in the list
In another list, Mr Somaiya has named 64 people who were given loans to buy vehicles. However, Mr Somaiya has alleged that the people who were sanctioned the loans were different than those who are currently using it.
