Rs 300 crore Pune land deal linked to Parth Pawar cancelled, says Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar amid row

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said his son Parth and his business partner were not aware that the land in Pune, which their company purchased belonged to the government, and the controversial transaction has now been cancelled.

A committee appointed by the government to probe the Rs 300 crore deal will submit its report within a month, he told reporters here, soon after meeting Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis amid the raging controversy.

The registration of documents related to the deal was cancelled, and affidavit to this effect were submitted to the authorities, the NCP chief said, adding that not a rupee had changed hands in the deal.

“The concerned land is a government land which cannot be sold. Parth and his partner Digvijay Patil were not aware of this fact. How the registration (of its sale) was done and who is responsible will come out in the probe being headed by ACS (additional chief secretary) Vikas Kharge, and he will submit his report in a month,” Pawar said.

As per his information, the authorities had not been pressurised to transfer the land to Parth Pawar’s company (Amadea Enterprises LLP), the Deputy CM said.

The FIR named three persons (including Digvijay Patil) but not his son because these three persons had visited the registrar’s office to sign the documents, Ajit Pawar further said.

He has told officials that if they found any irregularity in any other land deals involving his relatives, they should scrap the deal and take action, he said.

He had spoken to Fadnavis, who was in Nagpur on Thursday when the media started reporting on the controversy, and told the Chief Minister that he can take appropriate action, Pawar said.

Parth Pawar is a director of the firm involved in the transaction, Ajit said, adding that he spoke with the concerned officials and his son to “understand the facts completely”.

“I want to make it clear that neither I nor my office made any phone calls, gave any help, or had any role or knowledge about this transaction at any stage,” the Deputy CM said.

“From the information now available, it was clear that this was only an agreement to buy land and no payment was made by Parth, his company Amadea, or by any member of my family to the seller, and the possession of the land has not been taken. Therefore, the transaction has not been completed,” he said.

“My son Parth says that the proposed deal was within the ambit of law and completely above board. However, in public life, we must not allow even a suspicion of wrongdoing to emerge. Since allegations of wrongdoing have been made, he has agreed to cancel the deal. The required document for cancellation of the sale deed has already been submitted to the registering authority,” Pawar said.

On Thursday, the Rs 300 crore deal for the sale of 40 acres of government land in the upscale Mundhwa area to Amadea Enterprises LLP came under the scanner, as it was alleged that the land could not have been sold without the government’s permission, and the required stamp duty too was not paid. Opposition leaders also alleged that the market value of the land was Rs 1,800 crore.

Pimpri Chinchwad police registered an FIR — on a complaint filed by Inspector General of Registrar’s office — against Digvijay Patil, Shital Tejwani (who represented the 272 ‘owners’ of the land through a power of attorney), and sub-registrar RB Taru for alleged misappropriation and cheating.