Firm linked to BJP MLA retreats in land dispute with PM Modi’s classmate

A construction company allegedly linked to BJP MLA Narendra Mehta has surrendered its development permission in a long-running land dispute involving Asgarali Vohra, an 81-year-old man who says he was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s classmate.

The abrupt reversal by Seven Eleven Construction Private Limited has raised questions over why the company withdrew only after Vohra took his grievance to Modi, despite the dispute having remained unresolved for more than a decade.

Vohra, a resident of Mira Road, said he attended BN School in Gujarat’s Vadnagar with Modi. He met the Prime Minister on September 8 and sought a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged takeover of his 2,810-square-metre plot in Navghar, Bhayander East.

Vohra said he had purchased the land in 1989 but alleged that Swayam Builders and Seven Eleven Constructions encroached upon it in 2011. He has claimed that both companies are linked to Mehta.

Documents submitted to the Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation show that Seven Eleven Construction has now returned the commencement certificate issued for the property. In a letter addressed to the Assistant Director of Town Planning, the company asked the civic body to cancel its building permission and refund the fees deposited for the proposed project.

The developer stated that it had purchased the plot through a registered deed dated June 13, 2019, and obtained construction approval on April 17, 2026. It cited the continuing ownership dispute as the reason for relinquishing the permission.

The sequence of events has placed Mehta’s alleged links to the companies at the centre of the controversy.

According to sources, the BJP MLA also contacted Vohra’s associate, Ajay Dhokha, to begin withdrawing a police complaint lodged in 2015 against Vohra and Dhokha for alleged criminal trespass and intimidation.

Letters concerning both the withdrawal of the complaint and the surrender of the construction approval were reportedly submitted shortly before a municipal hearing scheduled for 16th September.

Vohra has alleged that documents were fabricated without his knowledge to divide the property fraudulently between the two companies. He said that an FIR was registered in connection with the matter in 2015, but the dispute remained unresolved for years.

The elderly landowner had publicly expressed confidence that his meeting with his former classmate would lead to action. Municipal officials subsequently summoned representatives of the two companies for an explanation on 16th September.

The timing of the company’s retreat—after years of litigation and within days of Vohra approaching the Prime Minister—has intensified scrutiny of the dispute and the influence allegedly exercised by entities associated with the BJP legislator.

Maharashtra Transport Minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Pratap Sarnaik had earlier shared photographs of Vohra’s meeting with Modi and expressed confidence that the Prime Minister would secure justice for his former classmate.

Although the surrender of the construction permission removes an immediate obstacle, the competing ownership claims and Vohra’s allegations of forged documents remain subject to legal and administrative determination.

With PTI inputs