On Monday, the Bombay High Court adjourned the hearing to January in a plea calling for a central investigation in the Vidarbha multi-crore irrigation scam and opposed the clearance of the Maharashtra anti-corruption office (ACB) to NCP chief Ajit Pawar. ACB, in its affidavits submitted to the high court in November, ruled out the involvement of Ajit Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, then chairman of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC), in the scandal. The affidavit relates to several charges against Pawar, who was the water resource minister between 1999 and 2009, including the three-month increase cost of Rs 17,700 crore in 32 irrigation projects in Vidarbha.