Pune's Rs2,000-Crore Land Controversy: Parth Pawar Cleared in Bopodi Case, Mundhwa Deal Under Scrutiny

The Pune police’s economic offences wing (EOW) has stated that the firm of Parth Pawar, son of Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, and his partners had no connection with a land case in Pune’s Bopodi area. However, investigations continue into a separate and much larger controversy, the alleged illegal sale of 40 acres of government land in Mundhwa valued at over Rs1,800 crore.

According to EOW, the Bopodi agricultural land case is separate from the Mundhwa land deal that has rocked Maharashtra’s political and administrative circles. Police clarified that both matters were clubbed under one first information report (FIR) registered at Khadak police station since a common accused, suspended tehsildar Suryakant Yeole, was involved in both transactions.

While the Bopodi issue appears to have been settled in Parth Pawar’s favour, the Mundhwa deal remains under investigation, with multiple FIRs, suspensions, and political statements intensifying the controversy. The Mundhwa case involves Amadea Enterprises LLP, a firm linked to Parth Pawar and his cousin Digvijay Patil. The company allegedly purchased the 40-acre government-owned land, categorised as 'Mahar vatan' property, from businesswoman Sheetal Tejwani for Rs300 crore. The land, originally belonging to the scheduled caste (SC) community, has been under the lease of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) since 1973.

Documents show that Ms Tejwani, acting as the power of attorney (POA) holder for 272 supposed landowners, executed the sale deed on 20 May 2025. Within days, the now-suspended tehsildar Yeole issued an eviction notice to the BSI, claiming Amadea Enterprises had legally acquired the land. However, Pune district collector Jitendra Dudi intervened, terming the notice 'illegal' and halting all further action. The collector stated no government approvals had been obtained and that there was no record of any occupancy fee being paid.

The land deal soon triggered outrage. Opposition parties alleged that the market value of the land was closer to Rs1,800–Rs2,000 crore and accused the company of paying just Rs300 crore, without even an upfront payment, and of paying only Rs500 in stamp duty instead of the Rs21 crore legally required. Following mounting public pressure, Deputy Chief Minister Pawar announced that the sale deed executed by his son’s firm had been scrapped. “I am not beholden to anyone for even five paise,” Mr Pawar says at a public event in Satara, defending his family. “When I checked, there was no transaction of one rupee. No one gave or took any money. A committee has been formed, and Chief Minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis has taken note of this.”

CM Fadnavis later confirmed that FIRs had been registered against those directly involved in the sale and that the law would take its course. “Action in the Pune land deal case is being taken as per law. There is no question of saving anybody,” Mr Fadnavis says. The FIR filed by the Pimpri Chinchwad police named Ms Tejwani, Mr Patil, and suspended sub-registrar RB Taru for alleged fraud and embezzlement. Investigations have found that Ms Tejwani, who runs a real estate firm called Paramount Infrastructure, had obtained powers of attorney from hundreds of purported landowners for nominal sums and sold the land to Amadea Enterprises for huge profits.

Ms Tejwani, now reportedly absconding, is also named in the Bopodi case and is believed to hold crucial information about the Mundhwa transaction. Her husband, Sagar Suryawanshi, was one of the main accused in the Seva Vikas Cooperative Bank fraud case, where the directorate of enforcement (ED) found that loans amounting to Rs41 crore were fraudulently obtained to purchase properties.

As the investigation continues, the Maharashtra government has appointed a five-member committee headed by senior bureaucrat Vikas Kharge to probe the Mundhwa deal and identify procedural lapses. The committee includes the divisional commissioner and district collector of Pune, along with the inspector general of registration (IGR). It will examine how the transaction was executed without state approval, fix accountability, and recommend steps to restore the land to the government.

Officials told Free Press Journal that both the suspended tehsildar and deputy registrar had 'grossly exceeded their authority', as only the state government is empowered to sanction transactions involving government-owned land. The Kharge committee held its first meeting at Mantralaya this week to review the available documents and witness statements.

Meanwhile, according to media reports both Ms Tejwani and Mr Patil are expected to appear before authorities to cancel the sale deed but had not done so by Monday evening. The company must pay double the original stamp duty, around Rs42 crore, to formally cancel the transaction.

The controversy over the Mundhwa land deal has not only drawn attention to lapses in land administration but also exposed the complex web of political, bureaucratic, and private players operating in Maharashtra’s real estate sector. While the EOW has exonerated Parth Pawar from the Bopodi case, the probe into the Mundhwa transaction continues to test both the Pawar family’s credibility and the state government’s commitment to transparency and accountability.