Ajit Pawar rubbishes claim by ex-IPS officer that he asked her to hand over police land

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Pic/Twitter@AjitPawarSpeaks

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday rubbished former Pune police commissioner Meeran Borwankar's claim that as Pune district guardian minister in 2010, he had asked her to hand over three acres of land belonging to police as it had been auctioned to a builder, reported news agency PTI.

"I did nothing about that plot of land," Ajit Pawar told reporters.

"I did not attend any meeting to take decision on this (land plot in Yerwada in Pune)," the NCP leader said.

Ajit Pawar said he had not "directed" then home minister R R Patil to "do this or do that" while taking a decision on the plot of land.

Borwankar, former IPS officer, had said the builder was D B Realty's Shahid Balwa who was later arrested in the 2G scam. She did not name Pawar in her memoir but has stated she opposed the handing over of the land.

In a press meet in New Delhi on Monday, she highlighted the "nexus" between builders and government. "I want to underline the tremendous builder-politician-bureaucrat-police nexus relating to sale of public land. Citizens should be alert," she said.

Congress and Rohit Pawar of Sharad Pawar's NCP have demanded a judicial probe into the matter.

Meanwhile, retired IPS officer Meeran Chadha Borwankar on Monday said there was a need to review (instances of) government lands given to builders as there was a nexus among politicians, builders, bureaucrats and police, reported PTI.

Her statement comes amid a controversy that has been kicked off after she claimed in her book that the then "district minister" of Pune, an apparent reference to Ajit Pawar, had in 2010 insisted on handing over a three-acre land belonging to the police department at Yerwada to a builder following an auction, reported PTI.

In the book, Borwankar claimed she had opposed the land being handed over to the builder, who was cited as an accused by the CBI in the 2G telecom scam, reported PTI.

Queried on the Nationalist Congress Party faction of Ajit Pawar thinking of sending her a defamation case notice if she failed to prove her allegations, Borwankar said they could do so, reported PTI.

"No one has read the book. Without reading the book, a headline was given that the police land was auctioned by Ajitdada. But in reality it did not happen that way. The then divisional commissioner (Dilip Bund) has taken responsibility that the land was auctioned by him," the former Pune police commissioner told reporters in Delhi.

(With inputs from PTI)