Sheetal Tejwani was first arrested by the Pune city police on December 3 and after two custody remands, she was sent to judicial custody on December 15. (File photo)
A court in Pune on Tuesday extended the custody of Sheetal Tejwani with the Pimpri Chinchwad police by four days. Tejwani is being probed in connection with a case pertaining to the stamp duty waiver in the controversial Mundhwa land deal by Amadea Enterprises LLP, a firm in which Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s son, Parth, is a partner.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 2) Vishal Gaikwad said, “The court extended the police custody of Tejwani by four days. We had sought extension in custody for further investigation.”
Two separate FIRs were registered with regards to the alleged irregularities and graft in the Mundhwa land deal case as the land in question fell under the category of Mahar Watan land and was leased to the Botanical Survey of India was later sold to Amadea Enterprises LLP without the mandatory approval of the state government at a significantly lower price than the market value and with a stamp duty waiver.
While one case was registered at the Khadak police station under Pune police, which has since been transferred to the Economic Offences Wing, the second case was registered at Bavdhan police station under Pimpri Chinchwad police. Tejwani has been named in both the FIRs as she held the power of attorney for 272 watandars of Mahar watan land in Mundhwa for its sale to Amadea Enterprises LLP.
Pimpri Chinchwad police said the main focus of their probe is the stamp duty waiver, which was wrongfully obtained for the registration of a sale deed in May this year. It has been alleged that the total cost of the land was in the range of Rs 1,800 crore but was sold to the company for Rs 300 crore along with a waiver of stamp duty. An FIR was registered at Bavdhan police station station as the registration of land deal took place at the sub-registrar office ‘Haveli Number 4’ in its jurisdiction. In the Mundhwa land deal, Amadea Enterprises is alleged to have paid only Rs 500 stamp duty. After the controversy erupted, the firm was served a notice to pay Rs 21 crore stamp duty for executing the deal.
Following the complaint filed by the office of the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) in connection to allegations of graft and irregularities in a multi-crore land deal involving Amadea Enterprises LLP, an FIR was filed at Bavdhan police station on November 6 against Digvijay Patil, who is Parth Pawar’s partner in the firm, Tejwani and Ravindra Taru, the now-suspended sub-registrar who registered the deal.
Tejwani was first arrested by the Pune city police on December 3 and after two custody remands, she was sent to judicial custody on December 15. On December 16, the Pimpri Chinchwad police took Tejwani’s custody from the Yerawada Central Prison after her custody with the Pune city police ended. She was produced before a court, which put her under the custody of the Pimpri Chinchwad police for eight days. On Tuesday, she was again produced before the court, which extended her custody with the Pimpri Chinchwad police by four more days. Meanwhile, Taru, who was arrested by Pimpri Chinchwad police on December 7, is currently in judicial custody.
On December 20, Amadea Enterprises LLP filed a civil suit before a court in Pune seeking cancellation of the sale deed registered in May this year. Tejwani has been named as respondent in the suit.