MN Navale gets bail in land grab case

Judicial magistrate (first class) SS Bose on Friday granted bail to founder president of Sinhagad Techical Education Society (STES) MN Navale in a case of alleged cheating and land-grabbing of the Pawan Gandhi Charity Trust’s (PGCT’s) 57 guntha land in Sutarwadi-Ambadvet in Mulshi taluka.

Navale surrendered before the court, where the complainant and trustee of PGCT, Chainsukh Gandhi (73), submitted an affidavit stating that Navale and PGCT have settled the matter. The affidavit states, “STES has agreed to pay Rs20 lakh towards litigation cost and Rs2.8 crore compensation for the school building. Therefore, I will do the needful to withdraw my complaint registered at Deccan Gymkhana police station. I don’t have any complaint against him. I will withdraw court cases.”

Gandhi said, “PGCT owns 57 gunthas in Sutarwadi- Ambadvet in Mulshi taluka, and built a school for rural children. In 2008, we entered into memorandum of understanding with STES to run the school for 35 months. In February 2011, we issued them notice to vacate school premises as the school was not functioning.”  He said Navale tried to grab the land by forging documents.

“I filed a police complaint against Navale in July 2011. After this, Navale filed cases against me. Meanwhile, we reached a settlement and would like to withdraw the cases,” Gandhi said.

The magistrate granted bail to Navale with condition that he will not leave Pune district without prior permission of the court.

Lawyer Milind Pawar represented Gandhi while lawyers SK Jain, Pratap Pardeshi and Amol Dange argued on behalf of Navale.