Nagpur: Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, on Thursday, discharged enquiry officer probing into Rs150 crore scam of Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB). The Maharashtra government was told to appoint new enquiry officer, as early as possible.
Citing his growing age and deteriorating health, petitioner Surendra Kharabe moved an application to relieve him from the work. He pointed out that there was already a stay on enquiry from the apex court and therefore, there was no progress. He also requested to relieve him from the responsibility of looking after enquiry records, as there was a risk involved in it. The court directed joint registrar for cooperatives in city to take custody of all records from Kharbabe and hand it over to the new officer.
Kharbade, the lawyer, was appointed as enquiry officer by the government to probe the NDCCB scam, indicted former chairman Kedar, a NCP MLA then. Based on his report, the Department of Cooperatives directed Kedar to cough up around Rs299 crore for the loss caused due to the scam.
This was one of the biggest cooperative scandals of the country involving top politicians. The enquiry by Bagde was dubbed one of the slowest, as he took over in 2002 and was expected to complete it in a couple of years, but it took him over a decade.
