Of land, land scams and laws of the land

An alleged land scam of enormous proportions has rocked the politics of Maharashtra. The scandal involves the family of deputy chief minster Ajit Pawar, and the response from the authorities so far has been markedly restrained.

At the centre of this controversy is a 43-acre plot of land owned by the ‘Bombay Government’ and leased to the Botanical Survey of India till 2038. This was ‘sold’ to a LLP (Limited Liability Partnership which protects the promoters’ personal property from being attached) company in which Ajit Pawar’s son Parth holds 99 per cent stake. The remaining one per cent belongs to his cousin Digvijay Amarsingh Patil.

The figures are staggering. The land, valued at around Rs 1,800 crore, was transferred for a mere Rs 300 crore. Stamp duty worth Rs 21 crore was waived, as were local taxes totalling about Rs 6 crore. Registration was done for a mere Rs 500. The property was first declared as privately owned by 272 individuals and then formally registered in May 2025.

When the deal became public, Ajit Pawar, not unexpectedly, claimed he had no knowledge of the transaction and that his son was unaware the land belonged to the government. As opposition parties demanded his resignation, Pawar announced that he had advised his son to surrender the land.

He later claimed that no money had changed hands, the registration had been cancelled, and an inquiry ordered. But how could a transaction of such magnitude take place without any financial exchange—or official oversight?

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, meanwhile, wants people to stop asking questions and wait for the inquiry committee to submit its report ‘within eight days’. But given the tendency of such committees to extend deadlines without delivering transparent, conclusive reports, critics are sceptical. Significantly, a joint sub-registrar implicated in the deal has been suspended, but his testimony or perspective has yet to surface. Was his role coerced, or was he a paid facilitator in this land transfer?

How credible is the narrative that the sellers did not know who they were selling to and apparently received no money even six months after the land was registered? And the buyer was not aware who was selling the land?

In revenue records, ‘Bombay Government’ is clearly shown as the owner with an existing lease to BSI. The collusion and criminal complicity is, therefore, proven but it remains to be seen if the law is interpreted and facts presented to give culprits the benefit of the doubt.

However, Parth Pawar—a prominent stakeholder—has not even been named as an accused in any of the FIRs related to the case. Public records will surely reveal details of the Rs 300 crore payment and signatures from the 272 ‘owners’, yet such transparency remains elusive.

There are doubts whether an inquiry by a committee of bureaucrats will get to the bottom of the deal and reveal all the sordid details.

Parth Pawar’s company, Amedia Enterprises LLP, lists Digvijay Amarsingh Patil as a partner. In the FIRs filed at two different police stations in Pune, Parth’s name is missing. The FIR filed at Bavdhan police station identifies individuals—Patil (who is also Parth Pawar’s cousin), Sheetal Tejwani (who allegedly had power of attorney from the majority owners), and the suspended sub-registrar Ravindra Taru—as accused. The land, reserved as Mahar Vatan for the Dalit Mahar community and leased to BSI, was illicitly registered as private property.

A separate FIR at Khadak police station concerns a different 13-acre government plot in Bopodi, Pune, originally allocated to the agriculture department. This case names nine accused, including tehsildar Suryakant Yewale (also suspended), Patil, Tejwani and others, for falsifying records and illegally selling government land. Tejwani’s past adds further intrigue. In 2018, she was implicated in a loan fraud involving Seva Vikas Sahakari Bank; the bank had seized her property in 2020. She was director of the now defunct Paramount Dreambuild Private Limited.

Notably, three related companies—Maharashtra Redevelopment Nirman LLP, Amedia Enterprises LLP, and Amedia Holdings LLP—share the same Pune address, with Patil and Pawar serving as directors.

Amedia Enterprises, founded in 2020 with a mere Rs 1 lakh capital, is ostensibly engaged in wholesale trade and vehicle repair.

So how did a low-capital company negotiate deals worth hundreds of crores within a few years? Where did the money come from? Has the Income Tax Department or the ED taken any action to investigate this suspicious financial flow? Curiously, signature verification in land documents points to Patil, not Pawar.

The Opposition has seized upon the scandal ahead of the winter session of the assembly, which begins in Nagpur from 8 December.

Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad has demanded a white paper on land deals in Pune and Mumbai and called for a full-day discussion in the assembly. “This government is not of the people, but of friends and cronies,” she exclaimed. She further alleged that Amedia Enterprises had previously grabbed government land for an agricultural dairy project in Bopodi using forged documents.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray was more scathing: “They stole our party, they stole our votes and now they are stealing our land as well.”

Nothing will happen, he said and added, “The chief minister will say, ‘nobody found guilty will be spared’ and wait for the dust to settle before issuing a clean chit.”

The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi echoed this sentiment with a post on X, ‘They know that no matter how much they loot, they will steal votes and return to power. They care neither for democracy, nor for the people, nor for the rights of Dalits.’

The land scandal has cast a wider shadow. Union minister of state Murlidhar Mohol has been linked to a Rs 311 crore land deal involving the Seth Hirachand Nemchand Memorial Trust. The deal was scrapped only after protests. Rohit Pawar, MLA and Sharad Pawar’s grandson, accused minister Sanjay Shirsat (Eknath Shinde faction) of illegally allotting CIDCO land worth Rs 5,000 crore to a single family in Navi Mumbai.

The Lokayukta has taken cognizance of this. Another Shinde faction minister, Pratap Sarnaik, faces allegations of acquiring land worth Rs 200 crore in Thane for just Rs 3 crore, though he denies any wrongdoing.

These cases not only highlight a systemic failure in land governance but also throw up a pattern that is depressingly familiar.