THE boot may well be on the other foot now. While it was former sheriff Sadruddin Daya of Dawood shoes, Rafique Tejani of Metro Shoes and Kishore Signapurkar of Milano Shoes who were held as the prime accused in the Rs 1,000-crore cobbler scam, fresh investigations have revealed the full-fledged compliance of Maharashtra politicians in the fraud.

Leaders from all three prominent parties—the Congress, the BJP and the Shiv Sena—appear to have been involved in the diabolical siphoning of public funds under the garb of setting up cooperative societies for poor cobblers. And in the coming weeks, investigators hope to unearth the names of the political beneficiaries of the embezzlement.

Meanwhile, allegations are flying thick and fast. Among the political links being investigated is that of former Maharashtra chief minister, Sharad Pawar. Though there is no direct evidence implicating the Congress leader, investigations have revealed Tejani to be a director of the Rs 500-crore Dynamix Dairy Products Pvt Ltd in which Pawar is believed to have a stake...