Ajit Pawar junks ex-Pune CP’s insinuations on govt land deal

Quaid Najmi
Mumbai, Oct 17 (IANS) Under fire for past couple of days, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said that he had nothing to do with the allegations made by retired IPS officer and former Pune Commissioner of Police, Meeran Chadha-Borwankar regarding a government plot of land in the Yerawada Police Station (Pune), here on Tuesday.

While admitting that as the Guardian Minister, he had met the then Pune CP, Meeran Chadha-Borwankar, Ajit Pawar said he was in no way concerned with the ‘decision making process’ pertaining to the 3-acres property around the Yerawada Police Station premises.

“I was not involved with the decision-making process, I did not evaluate it, nor did I attend any meetings pertaining to it… I have nothing to do with it,” said Ajit Pawar emphatically.

On demands by the Opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (SP), Shiv Sena (UBT) and others, Ajit Pawar said that the land is still there, so let there be any kind of probe.

“The land has not gone anywhere, has it? Its still there… So, conduct an inquiry or do anything you want… I had absolutely no role to play in it,” declared Ajit Pawar.

Dismissing contentions by various parties, he said that he would “never do anything that is illegal or cause a loss to the government” and politicians are ‘custodians’ of public lands like the one in Pune.

To Chadha-Borwankar’s claims that he had spoken roughly with her at their meeting in 2010, Ajit Pawar said that he had been a minister and Deputy CM for over 32 years, interacted with many officers and never had he faced such an allegation.

“I have handled all the major departments, you can ask any officer from any department… Though I may have a stern nature, I speak to them very cordially and respectfully,” said Ajit Pawar.

He smiled and wondered, that although the retired IPS has written on so many other issues in her book, ‘Madam Commissioner: The Extraordinary Life of an Indian Police Chief’, “why is the focus solely on me?”

To prove his points, Ajit Pawar brought along and read out various old government records of meetings on the Yerawada plot, the names of those who attended it, the sequence of events and how the deal was finally cancelled owing to various objections.

In her book, Chadha-Borwankar recounted that 2010 ‘encounter’ with Ajit Pawar in the office of the Pune Divisional Commissioner, and also how the then home minister, (the late) R.R. Patil had later advised her to ‘keep off’ that land deal matter.

She categorically said that she resisted pressures by Ajit Pawar and ‘saved’ the Pune police’s prime 3-acres of land that was to be handed over to a Mumbai based builder, Chairman of DB Realty, Shahid Usman Balwa, who was later arrested in the 2G Spectrum scam.

Chadha-Borwankar elaborated on that meeting with Ajit Pawar, who had a huge paper map of the Yerawada Police Station’s plot area, he informed her that the auction on the land was completed and she should proceed to hand over the plot to the top bidder.

Not complying, Chadha-Borwankar told him that it was police land which was required for future expansion, offices/residential quarters for the police personnel and they could never get such a good property in future, plus it would be contrary to the police department’s interests.

Ajit Pawar had overruled her and asked her to complete the (land handover) process, but she declined, and even pointed out flaws in the auction process and countered why her predecessor had not done it if the land was already auctioned.

After this, Ajit Pawar purportedly had lost his cool, flung the map on the glass table, and also made certain unsavoury references to R.R. Patil, revered as ‘Aaba’ in political circles, which are not spelt out by her, and following that cold encounter, Chadha-Borwankar saluted the Minister and quietly left the venue.