I may have asked about land deal, but ...: Ajit Pawar on IPS officer's charges

Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday said he might have asked then Pune police commissioner Meeran Borwankar about the "status" of a deal regarding a piece of land belonging to the police department in Pune, but denied the allegation that he asked her to hand it over to a builder.

Borwankar, a former Indian Police Service officer, alleged in her book Madam Commissioner that then 'district minister' -- an apparent reference to Pawar who was then Pune guardian minister -- insisted in 2010 that she complete the process of handing over an auctioned plot belonging to the police department to the winning bidder who was later cited as an accused in the 2G scam.

She opposed this move, she wrote.

“I admit that I may have asked her about the status of the land deal, and she may have expressed her opposition to the transfer of land. Except that, I did not try to push the deal. The reason I asked her about the deal was a committee had taken the decision to hand over the land to a private builder, but that decision was not being implemented,” Pawar told reporters in Mumbai.

The Nationalist Congress Party leader did not name Borwankar, but said some allegations had been levelled against him by "a retired IPS officer who had served in Pune as commissioner of police."

He also said that the officer could have made the claims in her book for sensationalism.

“During her media interaction yesterday (Monday), she did say there were other things in her book too, but I wonder why only this issue was being highlighted,” said Pawar.

During the press meet in Delhi on Monday, Borwankar identified the builder as Shahid Balwa. The land in question is located near the Yerawada central prison in Pune.

Pawar, meanwhile, also told reporters here that he did not attend any meeting where decision about the land was taken, nor did he direct then home minister RR Patil to “do this or do that”.

Borwankar, who did not name Ajit Pawar in her book, said at the Delhi press meet that she wanted "to underline the tremendous builder-politician-bureaucrat-police nexus relating to sale of public land", and "citizens should be alert".

According to her book, Borwankar refused to hand over the Yerawada land to the builder, stating that it would be useful for building new offices and residential quarters for the police department.

Congress and Rohit Pawar of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party faction have demanded a judicial probe into the matter.