By Smritika Banerjee
The sessions court in Pune has officially rejected the anticipated bail application of suspended tehsildar Suryakant Yewale, the ninth suspect in the case of granting land ownership in Mundhwa and Bopodi to private parties illegally.
A case was registered by the Khadak police based on naib tehsildar Pravina Borde’s complaint and was later transferred to the Economic Offences Wing of Pune police. It mentions the names of nine accused. In relation to the land parcel of Survey Number 62 in Bopodi, with an area of five hectares and 35 ares, six have been named.
Pramod Bombatkar, the district government pleader, opposed this plea. Yewale was termed the prime accused by him, whose cooperation allegedly led to the offence. This resulted in Sheetal Tejwani, the power of attorney holder, taking over government land through the eventual bid.
A Rs 300 crore deal was entered into by the latter with Amedia Enterprises LLP, which is in partnership with Parth, deputy CM Ajit Pawar’s. Harshad Nimbalkar, Yewale’s lawyer, argued that the decision was made in a quasi-judicial capacity and should be subject to scrutiny, and that criminal action was unjustified.
According to Bombatkar, the pre-arrest application was rejected by the court on objection. While functioning as tehsildar, Yewale deliberately ignored the orders issued by the additional district collector and the then revenue minister in relation to the government land, as per the prosecution’s claim.
Yewale issued directions to the Botanical Survey of India to vacate the land on the basis of a letter from Amedia Enterprises LLP, despite the rejection of two applications by the revenue minister and a petition filed on behalf of the original landholders being dismissed by the High Court.