Lavasa: Ex-IPS officer names Pawar & family

In the season of scams, Union minister Sharad Pawar and his close relatives were on Thursday dragged into a corruption scandal by a former IPS officer-turned-lawyer for benefitting a private developer by allegedly bestowing undue favours for the controversial Lavasa hill city project.

YP Singh, a former IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, alleged that Ajit Pawar, irrigation minister and nephew of Sharad Pawar, allotted 141 hectares (348 acres) of land belonging to Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation on a renewable lease of 30 years to the Lake City Corporation in 2002, violating a Supreme Court Judgement.

The company which later came to be known as Lavasa Corporation, a subsidiary of Hindustan Construction Company, was allotted the land at a monthly rent of Rs 23,000, Singh said.

Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule, now NCP MP from Baramati, and her husband Sadanand Sule, according to documents released by Singh, held 20.81 per cent shares in the company.

In 2006 the Sules sold their entire share to the Lavasa Corporation, he claimed.

According to Singh, Axis Bank, which invested Rs 250 crore in the Lavasa Corporation Limited in 2008 in the form of convertible preference shares and convertible debentures, valued the company at Rs 10,000 crore.

"The Sules, if the value of the company is taken into account on the basis of Axis Bank's assessment, must have got around Rs 240 crore from sale of their shares. It is not reflected in the affidavit Supriya Sule filed detailing her assets before contesting 2009 Lok Sabha elections," he said.

Distributing the affidavit which showed Supriya Sule's total assets at little over 50.45 lakh, Singh alleged, " there is a big money laundering scam".

Singh said, according to a SC judgement, if a portion of land acquired by the government is left after completion of a project, it would not go back to the erstwhile owner.

... contd.

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