Land scam: Ajit Pawar, wife named respondents

Pune, April 22: A court here has directed that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his wife Sunetra be made respondents in a case of alleged encroachment on a piece of land in Mulshi taluka of Pune district.

Judge S M Belkar passed the order yesterday during the ongoing hearing of the case filed in 1997 by Chandrakant Gundgal, according to R M Thite, lawyer appearing for the complainant.

The complaint alleged that one Raghunath Tapkir against whom the original case is filed, sold the land belonging to Gundgal fraudulently to Sunetra Pawar on which the Pawars had constructed a structure.

Gundgal had submitted an application before the court saying that the Pawars too be made a party in the case as they had encroached upon the land owned by him by "conspiring" with the defendant Tapkir.

PTI