Whistleblower's Early Warning on Mundhwa Land Deal Ignored, Leading to Political Controversy

PUNE: Months before the Mundhwa land deal in Pune snowballed into a political controversy involving Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s son, Parth, a Pune-based activist had raised a red flag – but it was ignored.

The whistleblower, Dinkar Kotkar, 60, had warned that ₹21 crore in stamp duty on the ₹300-crore transaction had been illegally waived. Despite a complaint and repeated alerts, no action was taken by the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) office, until the matter blew up this week.

Kotkar, founder-president of the Chhava Kamgar Union, has flagged irregularities in land and labour-related matters on several occasions. A resident of Hingane on the Sinhagad Road and a real estate broker, Kotkar had accessed some of the details of the Mundhwa deal. He was aware that the 40-acre plot had been bought by Amadea Enterprises LLP, in which Parth was a co-partner.

Kotkar wrote to the IGR on June 5, 2025, not long after the land deal was registered on May 20, 2025. His complaint related to the ₹21 crore in stamp duty that had been illegally waived when the sale deed was registered.

When he received no response, Kotkar sent a reminder on June 23, seeking cancellation of the sale deed and recovery of the exempted sum from the seller and purchaser. Again, he received no reply.

“They had taken note of my complaint all right because, not long after, some unidentified people approached me, warning me to ‘stay away’ from the matter, or else I would face consequences,” Kotkar told Hindustan Times on Friday.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Bavdhan police station on Thursday, based on a complaint from the IGR’s office, Kotkar’s June 5 letter was the first formal alert in the case. The FIR mentions that during scrutiny of his complaint, it was found that the sale deed for the Mundhwa land had been executed by altering official records.

The IGR, Ravindra Binwade, on Thursday suspended sub-registrar RB Taru posted at the Land Registration Office at Haveli No, 4 after a preliminary inquiry found that he had granted the illegal stamp duty exemption. Binwade has since set up a three-member committee, headed by Joint IGR Rajendra Muthe, to investigate the irregularities in the deal.

“We have initiated a probe into the complaint. All facts, including why no action was taken earlier, will be examined,” Muthe told HT.

According to revenue officials, the sale deed of the Mundhwa plot included a letter of intent from Amadea Enterprises submitted to the District Industrial Centre, under the state industries department. It was accompanied by a revenue and forest department notification dated February 1, 2024, which were cited to justify the stamp duty exemption.

However, the IGR’s order suspending the sub-registrar stated that while certain industrial exemptions could apply to the deal in question (the land had been purchased to set up a data centre), the 2% cess (1% for local body and 1% for metro rail) cannot be waived under any circumstances – resulting in a ₹6-crore loss to the state exchequer.

In Pune, the stamp duty on such transactions is 7% — comprising 5% stamp duty and 2% cess. On a sum of ₹300 crore, the value of the Mundhwa deal, this amounted to ₹21 crore. Yet, the sale deed was registered at ₹500 after claiming full exemption.

Joint District Registrar Santosh Hingane, who filed the police complaint on behalf of the IGR’s office, claimed, “After Kotkar’s complaint, we sought a report from the sub-registrar and issued notices to the parties concerned, including Amadea Enterprises LLP. The matter was due for a final order when the FIR was registered.”

Vijay Kumbhar, another Pune-based RTI activist said, “As political pressure mounts, not only the illegal exemption but also the administrative delay in acting upon Kotkar’s early warnings should be investigated — a lapse that allowed the issue to fester until it became a full-blown controversy.”