Mumbai, April 23 -- A special PMLA court in Mumbai on Wednesday discharged NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar and 16 others in a money laundering case linked to the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) sugar mills scam, effectively bringing the proceedings to a close.

The case stemmed from an ECIR registered in 2019 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), following an FIR lodged by the Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on directions of the Bombay High Court. The allegations related to the sanction of loans by MSCB to cooperative sugar factories between 2005 and 2010, which were allegedly sold at undervalued prices, causing substantial losses estimated between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 25,000 crore, to the bank.

Among those named in the E...