Tehsildar issued 'illegal' eviction notice to Botanical Survey of India

Days after the controversial 40acre Pune land deal by a firm linked to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawars son a nowsuspended tehsildar issued an eviction notice to the Botanical Survey of India BSI a longstanding tenant on the propertyPune District Collector Jitendra Dudi said the notice was illegalIn an eviction notice to the BSI the then tehsildar Suryakant Yeole had informed the central organisation that the company Amadea Enterprises LLP legally acquired the propertyThe sale of land in the citys upscale Mundhwa area for Rs 300 crore to Amadea in which Ajit Pawars son Parth Pawar is a majority partner is under scrutiny amid allegations of irregularities and a lack of requisite clearances The Opposition has alleged that its market value was Rs 1800 croreAccording to copies of official documents accessed by PTI the sale deed for the 40acre Mahar Watan land denoting hereditary landholding to the Mahar scheduled caste community was executed by Amadea on May 20 this yearSix days later the company requested Yeole to get the land vacatedOn June 9 Yeole wrote to the joint director of BSI saying their lease had come to an end citing a regrant clause in the agreementWe inform you that on December 20 2024 the original landowners duly deposited the occupancy price Consequently it is appropriate and necessary for your office to formally notify the Botanical Survey of India Pune directing it to vacate the land immediately as the lease agreement now stands terminated said the notice sent by YeoleAs per records the land was originally leased to BSI in 1973 The first lease was for 15 years and it was later extended for 50 years from 1988 with certain terms and conditions and an annual rent of Re 1Yeole who was later suspended over alleged irregularities in another land case informed the subdivisional officer on July 14 about his communication to BSI updating him on the status of the land and lease terminationThe eviction notice prompted a BSI team to meet Pune Collector DudiThe collector said the district administration then intervened and restrained Yeole from taking any further action It also initiated an inquiry against him in the Mundhwa land caseHe said Yeole issued the notice based on claims made by the original watandars 272 owners that they had paid the occupancy price through demand drafts and that the 40acre plot granted to the government now belonged to themAmadea had executed the deal for the land with one Shital Tejwani who represented the 272 owners through power of attorneyHowever the entire process of issuing an eviction notice was illegal I wrote to the subdivisional magistrate SDM and asked him to take necessary action and the process of eviction and physical handover of the land to Amadea Enterprises LLP did not take place said DudiA clause in the lease agreement with the BSI says that if the government ever regrants this land it will have to honour the decision said DudiThese landowners interpreted this clause to suit their convenience and claimed that since they had paid money to the government to reclaim the land it now belonged to them But this was incorrect In fact during our scrutiny it was revealed that no DDs had been submitted he saidThe official said there is a defined process to regrant government land Tehsildar Yeole should have understood the process and acted accordingly Since his actions were wrong an inquiry was initiated and the entire process was stalled he saidDespite the sale deed on which a stamp duty of Rs 21 crore was waived the land continues to remain in the name of the government he saidDeputy CM Ajit Pawar has said that the deal has been scrapped He has claimed that Parth was unaware that the land purchased by his firm belonged to the governmentBased on a complaint filed by the inspector general of registrars office the Pimpri Chinchwad police have registered an FIR against Digvijay Patil Shital Tejwani who represented the 272 owners of the land through the power of attorney and subregistrar R B Taru who has also been suspended for alleged misappropriation and cheatingWith inputs from PTI