Probe to discover Nirav Modi’s links to proposed industrial unit site in Rohit Pawar’s constituency

Three days after NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew and party MLA Rohit Pawar staged a sit-in at Vidhan Bhavan seeking an industrial estate in his constituency, industries minister Uday Samant on Thursday announced an inquiry to find out if fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi is one of the landowners at the proposed site.

“It is very serious if he is the same Nirav Modi who fled to London after the fraud at Punjab National Bank. The industries department’s inquiry will also find out who the real owners are,” Samant said in the council. Modi is currently lodged in a prison in London.

Samant was responding to the allegations made by BJP MLC Ram Shinde who was MLA of Karjat-Jamkhed in Ahmednagar before losing the constituency to Rohit Pawar in the 2019 assembly polls.

Shinde claimed that among the landowners at the site in Karjat’s Khandala-Pategaon, where a MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) unit had been proposed, were Nirav Deepak Modi, Nayan Agrawal, Pankaj Vinod Khanna and others.

“I too demanded an MIDC estate in Karjat during my tenure, but I never insisted on a particular location. Nowadays, some people are demanding it at Khandala-Pategaon. Documents revealed that the landowners at this location are Nirav Deepak Modi (survey no. 35, 39 (1) and (2), 58, 59 and many more), Nayan Agrawal (survey no. 37), Pankaj Vinod Khanna (survey no. 47), and others,” he said.

This raised doubts because people like Nirav Modi would get money from the government as compensation for the land acquisition, Shinde said. “So, the government should conduct a detailed inquiry into the names. People should know if he is the same Nirav Modi who fled India. The government should also find out if these people purchased the land from farmers at cheaper rates and are now trying to sell to the government at higher prices.”

Samant said a proposal to set up an MIDC estate at Khandala-Pategaon was made in 2021. “However, it is shocking to know the names of Nirav Modi, Nayan Agrawal, Pankaj Vinod Khanna and others as the landowners at the proposed site.”

Calls and text messages sent to Rohit Pawar seeking his comments went unanswered.

On Monday, Rohit Pawar staged a protest over the issue, and later withdrew it after Samant met him and promised a decision at the earliest. Later deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar expressed his unhappiness over Pawar’s protest saying the elected representatives should exercise patience when their demands are being considered by the government.

Significantly, Rohit Pawar stood by his grandfather following the split in the party by Ajit.