Kharage Panel Set to Submit Report on Mundhwa Land Purchase by Friday
Pune: The Vikas Kharage-led committee probing alleged irregularities in a Mundhwa land purchase deed linked to Parth Pawar, son of late deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, is expected to submit its report by Friday after being granted a one-week extension. State revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule informed TOI on Wednesday that the panel is expected to submit the detailed report by Friday. The further course of action will be decided after the submission of the report. The panel sought an extension last week, which ends this Friday.
Bawankule stated that the five-member committee, headed by additional chief secretary (revenue) Kharage, requested seven additional days due to the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections scheduled for Saturday. The request was accepted, and the revised deadline expires on Friday. A senior revenue department official said the inquiry report is in its final stages. 'It is almost ready. Officials from the departments concerned have given their inputs. A report is being collated and will be submitted to the state government soon,' the official stated.
The panel was constituted to examine alleged irregularities in a land purchase deed related to survey no. 88 in Mouje Mundhwa, Pune. It is looking into possible procedural lapses in land valuation, documentation, and the role of officials involved in the registration process. Bawankule earlier mentioned that the findings of another five-member committee appointed by the inspector general of registration (IGR) and controller of stamps will be merged with the report submitted by the Kharage panel. The committee was set up in early November last year amid political controversy and was initially asked to submit its report by December 6.
The deadline was later extended to January 6 and subsequently by another month after the panel sought more time to scrutinize records and responses from multiple departments. This is the second extension granted to the committee. Apart from Kharage, the panel includes the Pune divisional commissioner, commissioner of land registration and director of land records, IGR and controller of stamps, and the Pune district collector. Activists criticized the repeated extensions, alleging they could dilute the probe. Activist Vijay Kumbhar told TOI that he did not expect much from the inquiry. 'Parth Pawar was given a clean chit in the EOW case. Here too, the committee is unlikely to name him,' he said.
