An Indian sugar baron Ratnakar Gutte got loans worth Rs 578 crores ($80m) from seven public sector banks in the name of more than 24,000 farmers.Many of them did not survive. These loans were approved with the connivance of corrupt bank officers and officials.
The Enforcement Directorate, the economic intelligence unit of the central government, raided 10 locations, including properties belonging to sugar baron Ratnakar Gutte, in June 2019 in connection with the bank fraud.
Between the fiscal years of 2012-2013 and 2016-2017, his company Gangakhed Sugar and Energy Limited (GSEL), located in the town of Gangakhed, took out fradulent loans worth Rs 578 crores ($80m) from seven public sector banks in the name of more than 24,000 farmers, according to an audit report accessed by Al Jazeera.
Satpute, a farmer from a small town in the western state of Maharashtra, Sadashiv applied for a loan on March 27, 2014, according to bank records.
He subsequently received a sum of Rs 183,690 ($2,573) from Andhra Bank. But Satpute had died three months before his loan application, raising the question of how could he have applied for it in the first place.Who had received his cheque
His case came to light after a bench of the High Court of Bombay ordered the Economic Offences Wing of the state police to investigate an alleged fraud
Ratnakar Gutte, GSEL chairman, has been in jail since March 2019 for money laundering. A bench of the Bombay High Court is hearing the case.
Currently a member of the state legislature representing the constituency of Gangakhed, made up of farmers his sugar factory allegedly duped, Gutte managed to contest the October 2019 state elections from jail - and win.
In state elections five years prior, his Rashtriya Samaj Party was publicly allied with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
In the October 2019 elections, the public alliance was dropped but his campaign posters featured prominent photos of then-chief minister and BJP senior leader Devendra Fadnavis and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP's official ally, Shiv Sena, in the election had been contesting from the constituency too, but Gutte's team consistently said that he was the real BJP ally throughout the campaign.
Gutte's son, Vijay, directed the Bollywood film Accidental Prime Minister, said by many to be a hatchet job on the Gandhi family which heads the Indian National Congress, the BJP's main opposition.
Two top BJP functionaries refused to comment on Gutte. Anil Bonde, who was the agriculture minister in the previous BJP state government, and Ashish Shelar, the BJP’s chief whip in the state assembly, said they are not in a position to speak about him.
A request was sent to Fadnavis' assistant over SMS for a comment from the former chief minister. He replied, inquiring about the "exact subject" on which the comment being sought. A clarification was sent, after which the assistant stopped responding.
Political observers say defending Gutte could land a politician in trouble.
'Fraudulently availed loans'
After the raids last June, ED officials told the media that GSEL "fraudulently availed loans" from different banks in the names of thousands of farmers, "on the basis of guarantee given by the company".A handful of the farmers, like Satpute, were deceased. Those who were alive found themselves in a mess they did not sign up for.
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fraud