India, April 23 -- A special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases on Wednesday closed the case related to the alleged multi-crore fraud at Maharashtra State Co-operative (MSC) Bank and discharged all 17 accused, including NCP (SP) leaders Rohit Pawar, Prajakt Tanpure, his father Prasad Tanpure, former Maharashtra Congress chief Ranjit Deshmukh, and Shiv Sena leader Arjun Khotkar, all of whom were booked by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Special judge Mahesh Jadhav discharged all the accused primarily because the sessions court had, in February, closed the predicate case, registered by the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

The MSC Bank fraud, worth around Rs.25,000 crore, involves allegations of illega...