File criminal cases in Pune land scam: Congress urges Maharashtra CM

Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar has appealed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that a criminal case should be filed against all officials and beneficiaries involved in embezzling crores of rupees in the Pune deal land scam reported news agency IANSIn a letter he claimed that illegal transactions of government land worth crores of rupees in Pune Mundhwa were carried out with the connivance of selected private individuals and government officials and this was a wellplanned conspiracy to usurp governmentowned landHis letter comes amid a raging controversy involving the Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawarrsquos son Parth Pawarlinked Amedea Enterprises LLP in the land scam and the subsequent announcement of cancellation of sales deedldquoThe serious aspects of this case are On October 24 1973 this land was leased to the Botanical Survey Department for 15 years at an annual rent of Rs 1 Later the extension was granted until March 31 2038 On December 30 2024 Sheetal Tejwani deposited only Rs 11000 with interest as land holding value in the District Collectors office despite there being no official government resolution order from the Tehsildar or District Collector The officials accepted this amount without following any legal procedure The sale deed was registered on May 20 2025 It contains no mention of proof of land ownership consideration of market value or stamp duty Despite the availability of City Survey property records the document was registered based only on old 712 extractsrdquo said Wadettiwar reported IANSHe stated that the Registration Officer and Tehsildar conspired to transfer government land to a private individual On June 9 2025 Tehsildar Suryakant Yewale without conducting any investigation issued orders to vacate the premises to Botanical Survey Department as per Amedia Companys demand A case has already been filed against this same official in the Bopodi matterldquoThe Tehsildar took a favourable stance towards the beneficiaries to illegally take possession of government land In violation of the 2021 government order regarding transfer of vatan lands land holding value was illegally accepted without the governments prior permission Illegal document registration was done without obtaining an eligibility certificate violating stamp duty and valuation rules and granting concessions merely on Letter of Intentrdquo alleged Wadettiwar reported IANSHe further charged that beneficiary Sheetal Tejwani and Amedia Company attempted to usurp government land using false documents and wrong identificationWadettiwar said that in the governmentappointed committee to investigate this matter some officials are themselves involved in the previous illegal transactions Therefore the committee will not conduct a fair investigation and therefore it needs to be dissolvedldquoThis is not merely administrative malpractice but a planned misappropriation of government property worth crores of rupees Therefore all illegal transactions orders and sale deeds in the Mundhwa case should be immediately cancelledrdquo he demanded reported IANSWadettiwar also wrote letters to Revenue Minister Bawankule and the Maharashtra Chief Secretary demanding that the corrupt officials in this case should be immediately suspended and departmental enquiry against them should be initiatedThe land on which malpractice occurred should be taken into government custodyldquoAn independent thorough investigation be conducted to determine what other government and private lands have been usurped by these same officialsrdquo he saidWith inputs from IANS