bogus land dealers

Nagpur뭩 erstwhile royal family, the Bhonsles, who are seeing their family silver auctioned for a tax liability of just Rs 2 crore, may have lost land worth about Rs 500 crore to scamsters in the last few years. This might be revealed to be the biggest land scam of the region so far.
The Bhonsles have alleged that land worth a mind-boggling Rs 500 crore had changed hands on the basis of bogus No Objection Certificates (NOCs) issued by petty clerk Surendrakumar Mudholkar in connivance with greedy developers. Mudholkar was recently arrested for having opened a bogus bank account in preparation of siphoning off the auction money of Bhonsla wealth.The lands thus sold include a prime 20 acre patch situated on Wardha Road near Somalwada where such NOC was issued just 10 months ago. According to leading property dealers, this 8.92 lakh sq ft land can fetch around Rs 180 crore, even by a conservative rate of Rs 2000 per sq ft. Similarly, a piece of 70-acre land at Mankapur whose present cost is pegged at Rs 350 crore by realty market, was sold on the basis of bogus NOC issued by Mudholkar and officials of Court of Wards. A visibly angry Raje Raghuji Raje Bhonsle V, the legal heir of Senior Bhonsla Estate, lashed out at the Court of Wards for mismanaging the affairs of Bhonsla Estate and for issuing bogus NOCs, keeping the rightful owners in dark. 밒nstead of managing our property, officials of the Court of Wards had connived with the greedy developers and sold our precious lands,?a fuming Raje Raghuji told The Hitavada. Owners of 229 villages in Nagpur division and 1.43 lakh acre land, the Bhonsle family has been forced to run from pillar to post to get bare details of their own property even while an unholy nexus of developers-Court of Wards officials quietly disposed of their property, the royal family lamented. Some 15 years ago, 40 acre land at Sonegaon, was sold using similar modus operandi, he alleged. Questioning the veracity of NOCs and royal seals appeared on these NOCs, Raje Raghuji explained that all the stamps and royal seals were kept in safe custody of district treasury under double lock and room was sealed. Suspecting involvement of some 밷ig fish?and 뱕ery influential person,?Raje Bhonsle alleged complicity of officials and claimed that either duplicate keys were provided to Mudholkar by the 뱑eal master mind?or officials themselves misused the seals to grant NOCs to applicants. 밒ronically, nobody bothered to inform us about these transactions,?Bhonsle claimed. Who were the vendors and vendee? Where are the documents claiming ownership over property vested under Court of Wards? And just what mechanism was adopted to issue NOCs, Bhonsle asked while alleging foul play and demanded a CID inquiry to unearth this massive land scam. He is determined to expose the real beneficiaries who had earned hundreds of crores. Repeated complaints made right from District Collector, Divisional Commissioner up to Governor of Maharashtra, had failed to yield any tangible results. Court of Wards employees receive special honorarium for maintaining the property, but instead, they had merrily issued NOCs and destroyed our ancestral property, lamented scion of erstwhile royal family. Interestingly, the land covered under Court of Wards is exempted from the Tenancy Rights, Inam, Urban Land Ceiling and other land related laws, nor it can be mortgaged. Despite this, the scamsters had obtained NOCs, keeping rightful owners in dark and minted money, Bhonsle family lamented. In case of Somalwada land, the modus operandi was simple. According to Bhonsle, one Sudha Rana, who was not connected with family, was shown as their grandmother and on the basis of bogus authorisation letter the NOC was issued in a clandestine manner and the prime land changed hands without any consent from Bhonsle family. Is Mudholkar the real king-pin? Though Surendra Purushottam Mudholkar has emerged as the king-pin of entire land scam, Bhonsle family believes that some influential person is masterminding the operation land grab. According to royal family sources, Shalini Ghadge nee Nirmalaraje Bhonsle was their paternal aunt. She died in 1983. Mrs Shuddhalwar was appointed as Curator to manage estate of Shalini Ghadge and Mudholkar was appointed as her clerk. Mudholkar뭩 father too was associated with Court of Wards and hence Surendra was unofficially entrusted to look after the affairs of entire Court of Wards. Builders interested in grabbing the land apparently connived with Mudholkar and other staffers of Court of Wards and obtained NOCs and took possession of Bhonsle property, the royal family has alleged. At Bhamti Parsodi the land given for agricultural purpose was transferred in the name of tenants. The record was changed and name of Bhonsle was replaced, of course without informing them. This could be done because Mudholkar was supremely confident of the support he had from a very strong political lobby that favoured a group of real estate developers whose tentacles have gone far and wide and deep in Vidarbha and neighouring states. This political lobby also has influence in many places in the country with possible links with some infrastructure development agencies operating outside the country. The erstwhile Royal Bhonsle family led by Appasaheb Bhonsle had fought battle of Sitabuldi in 1817 against Britishers and lost, the last princely to fall to the alien invaders. The British confiscated entire property belonging to Bhonsles and later applying doctrine of lapse took over the kingdom in 1853. In 1890, the Britishers appointed Court of Wards to look after property of Raje Raghuji (Fourth) on behalf of his sons Fattesingh and Jaisingh. The family was divided into Senior Bhonsle and Junior Bhonsle in 1899. Raje Raghujirao Bhonsle V and Raje Mudhojirao Bhonsle are legal heirs of Senior Bhonsle estate and are sons of Raje Ajitsingh Rao and grandsons of Raje Fatesingh Rao. Late Raje Tejsinghrao Bhonsle and Maharani Chitralekha Raje Bhonsle, who were Members of Parliament from Ramtek, belonged to Junior Bhonsle and heirs of Raje Laxmanrao.