Mundhwa land deal: Police record accused Tejwani's statement

The Pune police have recorded the statement of Shital Tejwani, an accused in the alleged illegal sale of government land in Mundhwa to the firm of Parth Pawar, Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawars son.Tejwani was questioned on Tuesday in the case registered at the Khadak police station, an official said.Besides her, Parth Pawars business partner Digvijay Patil, and suspended tehsildar Suryakant Yeole who allegedly misused his power by issuing eviction notices to the Botanical Survey of India BSI, are the accused in the case.

The Pune police have recorded the statement of Shital Tejwani, an accused in the alleged illegal sale of government land in Mundhwa to the firm of Parth Pawar, Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's son.

Tejwani was questioned on Tuesday in the case registered at the Khadak police station, an official said.

Besides her, Parth Pawar's business partner Digvijay Patil, and suspended tehsildar Suryakant Yeole who allegedly misused his power by issuing eviction notices to the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), are the accused in the case. Parth Pawar himself has not been made an accused as his name did not appear on the sale deed, police had said earlier.

Tejwani allegedly entered into the deal to sell the 40-acre land parcel to Parth Pawar and Digvijay Patil's firm Amadea Enterprises LLP, acting as a power of attorney for 272 former owners of the land. The land, in fact, is owned by the government which has leased it to the BSI.

Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar said Shital Tejwani had been served a notice for recording her statement. ''The statement will now be scrutinised. We have already verified the documents, and the probe will take its own course, covering all possible angles. The investigating team is working towards a final conclusion to determine the violations and verify the evidence gathered so far,'' he said.

Statements of several other individuals are yet to be recorded, Kumar added.

''Once all the statements are collected, we will be in a position to draw a final conclusion as to what transpired and what aberrations or violations took place,'' the police commissioner said.

A notice has also been served to Digvijay Patil for recording his statement, Kumar said.

Notices were also issued to 272 original `Watandars' (those who had been granted ownership rights in the land under the Mahar Watan system), and some of them have already recorded their statements, he informed.

On Tuesday, Joint Inspector General Registration (IGR) Rajendra Muthe submitted the report of the committee headed by him to the government, indicting sub-registrar R B Taru, Patil and Tejwani for the illegal transaction.

Besides the sale being illegal as it is government land, it also came to light that Amadea Enterprises was exempted from the payment of stamp duty of Rs 21 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)