The Mundhwa land deal has been mired in a row as the 40-acre land that fell under the ‘Mahar Watan’ category and was leased to the Botanical Survey of India was sold to Amadea Enterprises LLP without the mandatory approval of the state government, and at a much lower price than the market value, with a waiver on stamp duty.
Parth Pawar’s firm, Amadea Enterprises LLP, which is embroiled in a controversy over a land deal in Pune’s Mundhwa, has filed a civil suit before a court, seeking cancellation of the sale deed registered in May earlier this year. Parth, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s son, is a partner in the firm.
Sheetal Tejwani, the power of attorney holder for 272 landholders of ‘Mahar Watan’ land—it refers to hereditary landholding where the Mahar (Scheduled Caste) community were forced to provide labour for village administration and the land was given to them—has been named as a respondent in the suit.
A civil suit was filed on December 20 in a court of civil judge senior division in Pune through Digvijay Patil, Parth’s partner in Amadea Enterprises LLP. The suit has been filed under Section 31 of the Specific Relief Act, which states that “any person against whom a written instrument is void or voidable, and who has reasonable apprehension that such instrument, if left outstanding may cause him serious injury, may sue to have it adjudged void or voidable; and the court may, in its discretion, so adjudge it and order it to be delivered up and cancelled”.
Advocate Bhalchandra Nikte, the lawyer for Amadea Enterprises LLP, confirmed the development. “We have filed a suit stating that the said sale deed is void and that it be cancelled.” When asked what reasonable apprehension the suit cited as a reason, he said, “It will be shared in due course of time.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, a Pune court rejected the anticipatory bail of suspended tehsildar Suryakant Yewale in connection with alleged irregularities in the Mundhwa land deal. Earlier, on December 10, the Pune City police had questioned Yewale and Tejwani together. Tejwani is currently in custody of the Pimpri Chinchwad police, who have also arrested now-suspended sub-registrar Ravindra Taru, who had registered the sale deed in May this year.