Pune: Observing the active role of the accused in defrauding the government by selling 40 acres of government land in Mundhwa to Amedia Enterprises LLP and evading crores in stamp duty, the Pune District Court ruled that bail cannot be granted to the accused, Sheetal Tejwani, and suspended joint sub-registrar Ravindra Taru on Tuesday.
Additional Sessions Judge D.P. Ragit rejected the bail applications of the main accused, Sheetal Tejwani, and the then Joint Sub-Registrar, Ravindra Taru. The judge noted that the nature of the crime involving government land is serious and involved the evasion of Rs 21 crore in stamp duty.
The court further clarified that the mere fact that Sheetal Tejwani is a woman cannot be a ground for bail and that Ravindra Taru assisted in the crime by concealing facts during the registration of the government land.
A case has been registered at the Bavdhan Police Station (under the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissionerate) against Sheetal Kishanchand Tejwani, Digvijay Patil (Director of Amedia Company), and Ravindra Taru.
While chargesheets have been filed against Tejwani and Taru, the investigation against Digvijay Patil is still pending. The bail applications filed by Tejwani and Taru, who are currently in judicial custody, were strongly opposed by Chief District Public Prosecutor Pramod Bombatkar.
The Deception
The prosecution argued that although the land in Mundhwa belongs to the Botanical Survey of India (a government institution), Tejwani sold it to Amedia Company for Rs 300 crore. Under the pretext of leasing the land for five years to set up a ‘Data Centre', an application was made to the District Industries Centre for a stamp duty waiver.
After obtaining a Letter of Intent (LOI), an application for stamp duty concession was submitted to the state’s Registration and Stamp Department. Prosecutor Bombatkar pointed out that instead of Director Digvijay Patil, an office boy from Tejwani’s office signed the adjudication applications, correspondence, and affidavits for Amedia Company.
Blow to the State Treasury
The court’s verdict highlighted that an employee in Ravindra Taru’s office had pointed out that the 7/12 extract (land record) for the Mundhwa land was closed/blocked, meaning the registration process could not be completed.
However, Taru allegedly instructed the data operator to select the “Movable Property” option instead of “Agricultural Land” in the Revenue Department’s "i-Sarita" system. As a result, the land sale was registered without charging the required stamp duty of Rs 20,99,99,500.
The court stated that Taru aided the crime by hiding the truth and caused a massive loss to the state treasury by failing to collect the proper stamp duty.
