MUMBAI: NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Saturday fired a fresh salvo at Shiv Sena minister Sanjay Shirsat, whom he had accused of a land scam pertaining to a Navi Mumbai family two months ago. Rohit shared copies of complaint letters written by two different forest officers, requesting their local police stations to register cases against three members of the Bilwalkar family, who claimed to be the original owners of a piece of land, and a few developers for cheating and forgery amounting to over ₹1,400 crore.
The complaint was filed based on the findings of the forest department’s internal investigations, which stated that the accused used forged documents to claim ownership of the ‘human reserve forest area’ and received compensation from the state government. Hindustan Times has copies of the letters.
In August, Rohit had alleged that Shirsat, during his tenure as chairman of CIDCO, had illegally handed over a 15-acre prime plot in Navi Mumbai worth ₹5,000 crore to the Biwalkar family, saying they were the original owners of the land, and received a kickback on the deal. The proposal for handing over the land was approved during the previous Mahayuti government led by Eknath Shinde.
“We are now sharing two letters submitted by the forest department to the police for filing a case, which is enough for the government to open its eyes. By dismissing minister Sanjay Shirsat, the mastermind of this ₹5,000-crore scam, the government can save its remaining credibility,” Rohit posted on his social media account on Saturday.
On August 25, the NCP (SP) MLA had shared documents to support his allegations that Shirsat had received kickbacks from the Biwalkar family, and demanded his resignation in the next two days. He claimed that he had 12,500 such documents.
On Saturday, Rohit reiterated that Shirsat was the mastermind of this scam and requested chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to drop him from the state cabinet. He said that even after providing so much evidence, if Fadnavis shielded corrupt ministers, he would continue the fight until justice was delivered to the sons of the soil. “By focusing on this issue, we could save around ₹6,500 crore of the government and sons of the soil together,” he added. Shirsat has not responded to the allegations yet.
The forest department in its report reached the conclusion that Indirabai Biwalkar, Gangadhar Biwalkar and Yashwant Biwalkar took ₹1,56,71,598 as compensation from the government against the acquired land under the Bombay Saranjams Jahagirs and Other Inams of Political, Nature, Resumption Rules, 1952.
“In its report submitted to the urban development department, CIDCO, on February 13, 2023 itself admitted that the Biwalkar family has no ownership rights on the acquired land. Despite this, CIDCO allotted 61,749 square metres of land to the Biwalkar family worth ₹1,410 crore. This was done even when the forest department was following up the matter with CIDCO,” the letter submitted by N G Kokare, zonal forest officer (Uran), stated.
The letter further said that the Biwalkars and the developers had misled the state government and had indulged in financial fraud, for which they should be booked for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy among other things.
The Biwalkar family scam pertains to their application to get the benefit of a 12.5% scheme that provides Project-Affected-People (PAPs) with 12.5% of the land that was originally acquired from them in the form of developed property. The family claimed that CIDCO had acquired 150 acres of its land, part of the 5,000 acres owned by it spread across 15 villages around Navi Mumbai.
Rohit claimed that the land was allotted to the family by the British government. He emphasised that the family had sidestepped the provisions of the Bombay Personal Inams Abolition Act, 1952, on the grounds that the said land was a personal gift—in which case, it could not be held eligible under the 12.5% scheme since the family did not own the land. This was the reason their application was rejected four times in the past.
Shirsat had already termed the allegations as “unfounded and baseless”. “The board has to take a decision considering the legality of the proposal. However, the allotment letter and agreement is yet to be made in this case,” he had told Hindustan Times on August 18, confirming that the proposal of the Biwalkar family had been cleared.
The minister has now hinted at political retirement. Speaking to journalists, he said, “One has to do good work. But one can’t always be in power. One must know when to stop. I was a corporator for ten years and MLA for four terms. I don’t know whether I will always be in power.”