Mumbai/New Delhi, Oct 16
In a huge embarrassment for the Maharashtra government, former Pune Commissioner of Police Meeran Chadha-Borwankar on Monday said that she managed to save a prime plot of land at Yerawada in the city belonging to the Police Department and pointed a finger at the then Guardian Minister and present Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
She was interacting with the media in New Delhi on an explosive chapter in her latest book, “Madam Commissioner: The Extraordinary Life of an Indian Police Chiefâ€, released on Sunday in New Delhi.
Chadha-Borwankar, though she has not mentioned Ajit Pawar in her book, recounted that 2010 ‘encounter’ with him in the office of the Pune Divisional Commissioner, and also how the then Home Minister, (the late) R. R. Patil had later advised her to ‘keep off’ that land deal matter.
The former Pune Police chief categorically said that she resisted the pressures by Ajit Pawar and ‘saved’ the city police’s prime 3 acres of land that was to be handed over a Mumbai based builder, Chairman of DB Realty, Shahid Usman Balwa, who was later arrested in the 2G Spectrum scam.
"When this incident (2010) took place, the builder was not yet arrested… It was good that the deal was later junked as it prevented the government from a huge embarrassment," Chadha-Borwankar pointed out.
The CoP of Pune (2010-2012) writes in the book at the pressures she faced from ‘Dada’ – without naming him - to release a prime three-acre plot belonging to the police in Yerawada to the private builder.
She elaborated on her meeting with Ajit Pawar who had a huge paper map of the Yerawada Police Station’s plot area, and he informed her that the auction on the land was completed and she should proceed to hand over the plot to the top bidder.
Resisting, Chadha-Borwankar said it was police land which was required for future expansion, offices/residential quarters for the police personnel and they could never get such a good property in future, and it would be contrary to the police department’s interests.
The Minister overruled her and asked her to complete the (land handover) process, but she declined, pointed out flaws in the auction process and even countered why her predecessor had not done it if the land was already auctioned.
After this, Ajit Pawar had lost his cool, flung the map on the glass table, and also made certain unsavoury references to Patil, revered as ‘Aaba’ in political circles, which are not spelt out by her, and following that cold encounter, Chadha-Borwankar saluted the Minister and quietly left the venue.
Almost 14 years after that episode, on Monday, she asserted that she was "not demanding any probe into the incident as the deal fell through after she put her foot down on it", angering Ajit Pawar.
The former cop also warned of a strong ‘bureaucrats, politicians, builders and police’ nexus against which all must safeguard, and said that the Yerawada land case is just one among 38 major incidents that figure in her book.
The book unleashed a political storm – state Congress President Nana Patole, Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, Shiv Sena-UBT national Spokesperson Kishore Tiwari, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar (nephew of Ait Pawar) and others have demanded a probe.
However, the ruling ally and breakaway NCP (AP) leader Rupali Chakankar has rejected the insinuations and warned Chadha-Borwankar of legal action if she failed to prove her charges against Ajit Pawar.
A smiling Chadha-Borwankar said that since Sunday, she has been besieged with phone calls and messages from various past or present bureaucrats on similar land scams that they have been grappling with.
