India Today: Mumbai: Friday, May 25, 2012.
Yet another member of the Pawar family in Maharashtra has been accused of land grab. This time it is deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's sister-in-law, Sharmila, who has been booked for forging the collector's permission to grab a land belonging to a Dalit family in Pune.
The incident, which came to light earlier this month, had become a thorny issue for the deputy CM as the public pressure to initiate action against his brother and sister-in-law grew. Finally, late on Wednesday night, the Paud police of Pune booked Sharmila, wife of Srinivas Pawar.
Both Srinivas and Sharmila are accused of grabbing the land, which was given to a Dalit family in Pune. An RTI application, filed by activist Ravi Barhate, revealed documents from the district collector's office that made it clear that forged documents were used to illegally gain possesion of the land near Hinjewadi IT park, close to the Rihe Dam in Pune.
Gulab Shekhar Gajarmal, the original owner of the land, has accused the Pawars of usurping the agricultural land with their influence, power and forged documents.
Barhate said, "Initially, there was a 1.10 lakh sq feet piece of land that could be sold, but since it was meant for the backward (Mahad) community, one needed the collector's permission to sell it. Sharmila had received the permission for that piece of land and the farmers wrote the deed in her name. She built a bungalow there but then she also began to eye the land beside it (measuring 1.36 lakh sq feet) for a garden. When the farmers protested, saying that it was their only land for cultivation, Sharmila forged the documents to replicate the original order she had received for the first piece of land."
It was in 2011 that a group of people sent by Sharmila arrived to demarcate Gajarmal's land that they realised that on paper, the land belongs to Sharmila. "We immediately complained to the collector and realised that she had actually imitated the collector's order from the first sale and transferred the second piece of land to her name. I filed an RTI application and the collector's office provided me with documents to show that no such permission was granted to her," Barhate said.
The Gajarmal family then approached the police commissioner, but no action was initiated against Sharmila and Srinivas. On Wednesay, May 22, the collector's office sent a written communication to the police, which was seeking a confirmation from the collector on the issue. Based on the letter received, the Paud police have now registered a case against Sharmila under IPC Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
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