Land deal cancelled as Ajit Pawar denies role; Sharad Pawar targets Fadnavis

The controversial Pune land deal allegedly involving Parth Pawar, the son of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, was declared as cancelled on Friday night after Ajit Pawar met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi raised the issue on Friday evening.

Shortly after meeting Fadnavis on Friday night, the Deputy Chief Minister said that his son Parth Pawar, who is also NCP founder Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew, had told media persons he was not aware that the land purchased by his company in Pune belonged to the government. Ajit Pawar added that the Rs 300-crore land deal has now been cancelled, even as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called the transaction a “theft of land reserved for Dalits.”

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The Deputy CM also said that his son has not been named in any First Information Report (FIR) so far, “because only those who signed the registration documents were booked”.

“The land deal has been scrapped. All transactions have been cancelled. I always go by the rules. If anyone from my family or close to me tries to do something wrong, I will never support it. I have gathered all the information about the case. I called the Chief Minister and told him that he can order a probe. A committee has been set up to probe into allegations in the concerned case. The report will be submitted in a month. An FIR has also been registered. Everything about who had put pressure on officers and who is involved in the deal will all be investigated. Whatever happened was not known to me,” Ajit Pawar said.

Replying to opposition allegations, BJP leader and Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule told media persons that the FIR did not name Deputy CM Ajit Pawar’s son Parth Pawar, because he was not present at the sub-registrar’s office in Pune when the sale documents were signed.

Speaking to media persons on Saturday in Nagpur, Fadnavis lashed out against the opposition and said, “Those who don’t even understand what a First Information Report (FIR) is, are the ones making baseless allegations. We are not trying to protect anybody. We will take action against whoever is found to be involved.”

“When an FIR is registered, it is filed against the parties directly involved. In this case, the FIR has been filed against the company and its authorised signatories. There was an agreement between the parties involved in the deal, but the exchange of money is still pending. However, the registry has already been completed. Both parties have now filed an application to cancel the registry,” Fadnavis said.

“As per procedure, they are required to pay fees to cancel it, and accordingly, a notice has been issued to them. Further action will be taken after that. Even if this happens, the criminal case that has been filed will not end. Irregularities which occurred will still be investigated, and whoever is responsible will face action. Along with this, a parallel inquiry is also being conducted under the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS). The entire inquiry will be completed within a month, identifying all the people involved. Based on that, further action will be
taken,” Fadnavis told media persons in Nagpur on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Registration in Pune has submitted an interim report to the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) in Mumbai about Parth Pawar’s land deal.

However, NCP founder Sharad Pawar was asked by media persons in Akola on Saturday why no case has been registered against Deputy CM Ajit Pawar’s son, Parth Pawar, even though Parth owns 99 per cent of Amadea Enterprises LLP, which purchased the land, especially when a case has been registered against Digvijay Patil, who owns only 1 per cent of the company.

Incidentally, Digvijay Patil happens to be Deputy CM Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar’s nephew and Parth Pawar’s cousin.

Replying to media persons, Sharad Pawar said, “Only the Home Minister of Maharashtra can answer this question. I cannot,” in an indirect reference to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the home ministry portfolio.

“The Chief Minister said that the Parth Pawar land case is serious. If the Chief Minister said that the matter is serious, he should investigate it and present the truth before society. The secondary registrar has cancelled this land transaction in Mundhwa. Government officials who took this decision would have done it based on strong evidence,” Sharad Pawar said.