Pimpri-Chinchwad: Sheetal Tejwani, an accused in the 40-hectare land sale scam in Mundhwa, is a habitual offender involved in crimes such as forgery of documents, breach of trust, and fraud. Serious cases of this nature have been registered against her at various police stations. The Bavdhan police requested 10 days of police custody, stating a strong possibility of large-scale financial transactions between Tejwani and other accused, potentially involving a major racket. Following the request, the Paud Court ordered Tejwani to be remanded to police custody for seven days on Tuesday evening.
On 6th November, a case was registered at the Bavdhan Police Station against three individuals named Digvijay Amarsingh Patil, a partner in Amedia Enterprises LLP (a company in which Parth Pawar, son of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, is a partner); Sheetal Kishanchand Tejwani, who held the Power of Attorney for the land sale; and Ravindra Taru, the Joint Sub-Registrar who registered the documents.
Currently, co-accused Ravindra Taru is in police custody until 19th December. Additionally, the Bavdhan police conducted a thorough interrogation of the third accused, Digvijay Patil, throughout the day on Monday.
Sheetal Tejwani was previously arrested by the Pune City Police in a similar case of Bopodi Land, which was registered with Khadak Police Station. After her initial custody ended, she was sent to Yerawada Central Jail. On Tuesday morning, Bavdhan police took custody of her from Yerawada Jail via a production warrant and produced her before the Paud Court later in the evening.
Senior Police Inspector Anil Vibhute of Bavdhan Police Station argued for 10-day custody, citing several key reasons, saying she is a habitual offender, she was involved with tampering with the documents in this case, she has provided a fake address, the fraud was done against the government by evading stamp duty, and she runs an alleged land-grabbing racket.
Tejwani’s Criminal History
Since 2015, six cases of fraud have been registered against Tejwani at Pimpri, Khadak, Bavdhan and Shivajinagar police stations. There is a possibility she has committed more such crimes. She was also the accused in the infamous Seva Bank Scam, which rocked Pimpri-Chinchwad in 2018, along with her husband.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the accused, Ravindra Taru, revealed during interrogation that when Tejwani submitted documents for verification, she swapped the original attachments with different documents during the online registration process. The documents were registered without re-verification. Tejwani also reportedly provided a false address in the documents, where she has no ownership or rental rights. She has been allegedly misusing this address for land dealings.
Digvijay Patil of Amedia Enterprises LLP submitted a Letter of Intent to the Maharashtra Industries Department, claiming a term sheet allowed the land to be used for five years. However, Tejwani had no such authority and intentionally included this information to defraud the government. Due to her past and current observations, Pimpri-Chinchwad Police suspect a major racket is involved in grabbing government land and selling it to private individuals, being operated by Tejwani.
Tejwani allegedly conspired with the co-accused to register documents for Amedia Enterprises LLP by falsely claiming a stamp duty waiver, even though the District Industries Centre, Pune, had not granted any such exemption.
The police emphasised that because the financial stakes and the ‘under-the-table’ amounts involved are substantial, it is necessary to investigate the financial interests and ties between all accused parties. The court, after hearing the arguments, remanded Tejwani to police custody until 23rd December.
