Mundhwa land deal: Pune police question accused Shital Tejwani for over 5 hours

Pune, Nov 20 (PTI) For the second time this week, the Pune police on Thursday questioned Shital Tejwani, an accused in the alleged illegal sale of government land to the firm of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's son Parth Pawar, officials said.

Tejwani was questioned for more than five hours by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) officials in the case registered at the Khadak police station, an official said.

She was earlier questioned by the police on Tuesday.

Besides Tejwani, Parth Pawar's business partner Digvijay Patil and suspended tehsildar Suryakant Yeole, who allegedly misused his power by issuing eviction notices to the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), are the accused in the case.

However, Parth Pawar himself has not been named as an accused as his name did not appear on the sale deed, the police have said earlier.

"Tejwani was at the EOW office for more than 5 hours. She submitted additional documents, such as some agreements and power of attorney papers, to us. On that basis, an additional statement was recorded and she was let off by evening," the EOW official said.

Tejwani allegedly entered into the deal to sell the 40-acre land parcel to Parth Pawar and Digvijay Patil's firm Amadea Enterprises LLP, acting as a power of attorney for 272 former owners of the land. The land is owned by the government which has leased it to the BSI.

A committee headed by Joint Inspector General Registration (IGR) Rajendra Muthe submitted an inquiry report to the government, indicting sub-registrar R B Taru, Patil and Tejwani for the illegal transaction.

Besides the sale being illegal as it is government land, it also came to light that Amadea Enterprises was exempted from the payment of stamp duty of Rs 21 crore.

Tejwani and Patil allegedly entered into an agreement and executed the sale deed despite knowing that it is a government property. PTI SPK NP