Pune land deal: Show-cause notice issued to suspended tehsildar, says Bawankule; Parth writes to EOW

Pune: Maharashtra revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Thursday said a show-cause notice has been issued to suspended tehsildar Suryakant Yeole in the Mundhwa land deal case seeking an explanation on why he should not be dismissed from service.

The mistake committed by Yeole is unpardonable, he said referring to the case involving sale of government land to a firm in which Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's son Parth is a partner.

"There was an attempt to give away land worth Rs 1800 crore. A notice has been served to Yeole seeking an explanation on why he should not be dismissed from service. His response is awaited. The revenue department has approached court seeking cancellation of the sale deed. A decision on this is expected soon," Bawankule said.

Bawankule said the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) department has initiated the process to recover stamp duty.

"No one is being shielded in the case. The probe in the case is going on without any political interference. If the government wanted to protect anyone, there would not have been police custody of up to 12 days for some of the accused," he said.

Accused Sheetal Tejwani has spent 12 days in police custody.

Meanwhile, Parth Pawar, partner in Amadea Enterprises LLP, on Thursday wrote to Pune police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) claiming his signatures were forged on documents circulated in the media in connection with the Mundhwa land deal case.

In a letter addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Economic Offence Wing) , Pawar cited letters purportedly addressed to certain government officials and denied having signed any of them.

"Mischievous and fake narrative is being carried in the electronic and print media at the behest of certain antisocial elements with criminal intention of committing an offence against me and implicating me in a fake case," Parth Pawar said in the letter.

Investigation is need to find out the source of such fake letters and the persons who have forged his signatures on them, Parth Pawar said.

Two days back, RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar, in a press conference, showed a couple of letters which he claimed were written by Parth Pawar to the collector and additional collector in the Mundhwa land matter.