Criminal case against MLA for Rs 141 crore embezzlement

MUMBAI: A criminal case has been registered against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Ramesh Kadam for alleged involvement in a Rs 141 crore fraud, following a CID probe.
Kadam was chairman of the state-run Annabhau Sathe Financial Corporation, set up by the state government, to provide financial assistance to members of backward communities. All offences registered against him are cognizable and non-bailable.A CID team had reached his Solapur home but he had escaped from the city.
The CID searched offices and residences of Kadam in Solapur and found records of leading real estate firms, and incriminating documents on illegal and unauthorized investments on Sunday.
Kadam, elected to the assembly from Mohol, is among more than half a dozen NCP leaders under scrutiny. Former PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal and senior NCP leaders Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare are under the scanner of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
“We have booked him under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act after it was confirmed that he was directly involved in the fraud. We have established his dubious role in the embezzlement of huge funds of the corporation,’’ additional director-general Sanjay Kumar told TOI.
Kumar said that as chairman, he transferred huge amounts from the corporation accounts to organizations controlled by him. Later, the entire amount (Rs 90 crore) was transferred to the account of a real estate firm.
From the arrears of the Sixth Pay Commission, payable to employees, Kadam took 50% arrears, illegally recruited 37 persons, including his relatives to the corporation, land belonging to the corporation was transferred to his relatives and huge funds of the corporation were misused for personal gain.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis entrusted the investigations to CID officers soon after he took over in October last year.