Ajit Pawar seeks dismissal of 'meritless' PIL filed against him in irrigation scam

Nagpur (Maharashtra) [India], Jan 15 (ANI): Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday sought the dismissal of "meritless" public interest litigations (PILs) filed against him in connection with the alleged irrigation scam.
Pawar, in an affidavit filed before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, said that the petitions were "without merit" and "filed with mala fide intentions".
He said that he has not been named as an accused in the FIRs filed in the case.
"This civil application is totally without merits, pleadings and is filed with malafide motives and therefore deserves to be rejected by imposing pecuniary costs," the affidavit read.
It said that he has "not indulged in any corrupt, motivated or mala fide act while discharging my duties as a minister".
"Law contemplates and mandates investigation relating to the case, a cognizable case and obviously the investigation cannot be predestined by the court to be confined to particular accused only nor can it be shackled by the court within a given frame on the basis of any foregone conclusion so as to exclude any particular person to be named beforehand," the affidavit said.
"The purpose of an investigation is expected to proceed in a chain process leading to discovery of truth by proceeding from stage to stage on the basis of available materials and detected clues and therefore if in any case an investigation is allowed to continue it will have to be allowed to continue by following its own course in accordance with law as to reach its logical destination," it said.
Arguing that the there is no scope of "judicial tailoring" a police investigation Pawar said that the investigation of an offence is the prerogative of a probe agency.
The affidavit was filed in connection with the PIL filed against him in connection with the alleged irrigation scam, which is set to be heard by the court on Wednesday.
Pawar, along with others, was in-charge of Maharashtra's irrigation department when the Congress-NCP coalition government was in power in the state from 1999 to 2014.
That was the period during which the alleged scam, relating to irregularities in various irrigation projects, took place. (ANI)