Pune: Now Sheetal Tejwani Arrested by Pimpri-Chinchwad Police in Mundhwa Land Case

Bavdhan, 16th December 2025: The Pimpri-Chinchwad police on Tuesday arrested Sheetal Tejwani Suryavanshi, identified as the key accused in the alleged ₹21-crore stamp duty waiver and land registration scam, a day after she was sent to judicial custody. She was produced before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court at Paud, which granted the police eight days of custodial remand.

Investigators had sought her custody for 10 days.

In their remand plea, the police told the court that the investigation has revealed deliberate tampering with documents during the online property registration process. Officers said that during the interrogation of Haveli-4 sub-registrar Ravindra Balkrushna Taru, it emerged that Tejwani had submitted one set of documents for initial verification, which were placed in the physical file. However, during online registration, these papers were allegedly swapped with a different set, allowing the registration to be completed fraudulently.

“The accused initially produced one set of documents for scrutiny. Later, during the online registration, these documents were replaced, and the registration was carried out without verifying the attached papers,” the police stated in their application.

Investigators said this method came to light after Taru’s arrest earlier in the case. According to police, Taru allegedly processed and registered the online documents without proper verification, prompting the need for Tejwani’s custodial interrogation to uncover the wider conspiracy.

Police have alleged that Tejwani caused a loss of ₹21 crore to the state exchequer. They informed the court that her custody is necessary to identify the roles of other accused persons, trace money trails, seize electronic devices allegedly used to prepare forged documents, and conduct searches at her residence and office.

According to investigators, Tejwani, along with Amadea Enterprises LLP and its partner Digvijay Patil, submitted an application to the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) office claiming usage rights over the land for five years based on a term sheet. “She had no legal rights over the land and misrepresented facts to obtain benefits from the government,” police said, adding that mandatory documents such as the Eligibility Certificate were not submitted. The police have alleged that she acted in collusion with Patil and other accused.

The remand application also refers to allegedly forged powers of attorney executed in 2006, 2007 and 2008, under which Tejwani reportedly had no authority to sell government land in the name of the Mumbai Sarkar. Despite her appeal to the revenue minister being rejected on January 6, 2023, and subsequent government orders reaffirming state ownership of the land, she allegedly went ahead with the registration with what police described as the “active assistance” of sub-registrar Taru.

Police further told the court that Tejwani has a previous cheating case registered against her and is suspected to be linked to an organised land-grabbing network involved in the illegal transfer and sale of government land to private parties.

Taru, 58, was arrested on Sunday evening for allegedly facilitating the fraudulent registration and helping evade nearly ₹6 crore in stamp duty on a deed valued at around ₹300 crore. He was remanded to eight days of police custody by the JMFC court at Paud. Police said he registered a sale deed between Tejwani and Digvijay Patil, allegedly in connivance with them.

The case stems from a complaint filed on November 6 by Santosh Hingane, Joint Deputy Registrar (Class I) and Stamp Duty Collector. The complaint alleges that Tejwani, Taru and Patil colluded to register a sale deed on May 20, 2025, for nearly 40 acres of state government land in Mundhwa, valued at over ₹2,000 crore, and unlawfully granted a stamp duty waiver, resulting in a loss of about ₹6 crore to the state.

Patil is a partner in Amadea Enterprises LLP, in which Parth Pawar, son of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, is also a partner. Police said the involvement of all accused persons and the financial transactions linked to the deal are being examined as the investigation continues.