Overview
- The special court for MPs/MLAs in Mumbai discharged Rohit Pawar and 16 others on Wednesday and closed the Enforcement Directorate’s money‑laundering case linked to the Maharashtra State Co‑operative Bank.
- Judge Mahesh Jadhav ruled the PMLA case cannot continue because the underlying police case, known as the predicate offence, was closed by the court on February 27 after the Economic Offences Wing filed closure reports.
- The ED opposed discharge and said it had gathered evidence and filed one prosecution complaint and three supplementary complaints between 2023 and 2025 that named 17 accused, but the court held the money‑laundering case cannot stand without a live underlying crime.
- The ED has a writ petition pending in the Bombay High Court over its earlier attempt to oppose the closure, and the judge noted the agency may seek to revive proceedings if the High Court later rules in its favor.
- The original EOW FIR from 2019 alleged irregular loans and cut‑price sales of cooperative sugar mills between 2007 and 2017 that it said caused losses of about ₹25,000 crore, a claim the EOW ultimately said it could not support after reinvestigation.