Pune land deal: Original sale deed and Power of Attorney document recovered from arrested accused

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The Economic Offences Wing of the Pune Police has recovered the original sale deed of a controversial land deal linked to Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar's son Parth and the document of the power of attorney from the arrested accused Shital Tejwani, officials said on Monday, reported news agency PTI.

The EOW has initiated a process of freezing the bank accounts of Tejwani, who held the Power of Attorney (PoA) in the Mundhwa land deal.

"An original sale deed, executed between Amadea Enterprises LLP and Tejwani, who acted as a power of attorney in the deal, was recovered by EOW," a senior official said, reported PTI.

Police also recovered the original document pertaining to the PoA, which was given to Tejwani by 272 original watandars of the 40-acre land. The PoA authorised Tejwani to re-grant the "mahar watan" land in the name of the original land owners, reported PTI.

In a related development, a court in Paud has remanded sub-registrar Ravindra Taru, who was arrested for allegedly facilitating the sale deed despite knowing that the land belonged to the government, to eight-day police custody.

The land, allegedly worth Rs 1,800 crore as per the market value, was sold illegally to Parth Pawar's Amadea Enterprises LLP for Rs 300 crore.

The investigation report had indicted a partner in the firm, Digvijay Patil, and Tejwani.

An inquiry report of a committee headed by Rajendra Muthe, Joint Inspector General of Registration (IGR), stated that Taru (58) processed the sale deed on May 19 this year using a critical loophole in the registration system.

Taru used the "skip" option in the e-mutation process to register a sale deed for government-owned land in Mundhwa, classifying it as "movable property" to bypass the mandatory verification procedures, the report said.

As per police, land was illegally sold to Parth Pawar's Amadea Enterprises LLP for Rs 300 crore, despite the property's estimated market value of Rs 1,800 crore.

"Sub-registrar Taru failed to verify this crucial fact, thereby violating Section 18 of Registration Act 1908. This section explicitly requires registrars to verify ownership status before registering any property transaction, particularly when government land is involved," the investigation report said.

The report also names Amadea Enterprises LLP Digvijay Patil, as well as Shital Tejwani, who acted as power of attorney holder and sold the land. She has since been arrested.

(With inputs from PTI)