Anna Hazare to look into Chordia-Balwa land controversy

Anti-corruption crusade Anna Hazare has promised to probe into allegations of a Rs15,000 crore land scam at Yerawada, Pune, involving jailed businessman Sahid Balwa’s DB Realty and Pune businessman Atul Chordia’s Panchshil Realty. The Chordia firm has Union minister Sharad Pawar’s daughter and Baramati MP, Supriya Sule, and her husband Sadanand as investors.

Hazare’s attention to this case was brought by city builder and RTI activist Ravindra Barate. Previously, state’s leader of opposition Eknath Khadse had also alleged a scam at Yerawada on the floor of the state assembly, while drawing attention to Pawar’s links with Balwa and Chordia. Both Pawar and Chordia have refuted the allegations.

“Based on the papers I handed over to him, Anna has promised to look into the Yerawada case closely after he is free from the Jan Lokpal Bill agitation,” Barate said. The controversial Yerawada land is located on Survey No 191(A) which has the Panchshil Tech Park One building and an ongoing construction of a star hotel by DB Realty.

Khadse and Barate have alleged that this land was handed over for private development during Sharad Pawar’s chief ministership in the 1990s. They have also accused former Pune district collector Shriniwas Patil (now, the NCP MP from Karad) of transferring the land to the Mukund Bhawan Trust which in turn sold a portion of the land to Panchshil and DB Realty.