Mumbai: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s schoolmate met him and sought his help in recovering a land parcel allegedly encroached upon by a realty firm, the Thane-based company linked to BJP MLA Narendra Mehta has cancelled the deal and surrendered its construction permission.
However, the 81-year-old Asgar Ali Vohra is yet to regain the 2,810 sq m plot, with its ownership still contested, and the matter subjudice.
Seven Eleven Construction Company, in which Narendra Mehta, the BJP MLA from Mira Bhayandar has shares, cancelled the deal on Tuesday, a week after Vohra met PM Modi at the Mantralaya in Mumbai.
With the ownership now gone, the company has also surrendered the construction permission from the Town Planning Department of the Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation.
But Mehta has denied land-grabbing charges, and instead claimed he was being defamed through “dirty politics”.
“We never bought the land from Vohra, nor cheated him. He must have been defrauded by others and should have instead gone against them. We bought the land parcel from Mervyn Fernandes only after the court’s order on that land,” Mehta told ThePrint on Friday.
Mehta said that the 50 percent part of land was bought by the company in 2019 only after checking all the legal documents. He said he has now met Vohra and explained to him his position, and informed him that his company will be vacating the claim on the land it held.
Mehta, however, also attacked Shiv Sena MLA and his bete noire, Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik, whose Ovala-Majiwada constituency includes parts of Mira-Bhayandar.
“110% this is local politics,” Mehta told ThePrint without naming Sarnaik. “This is the company’s job to buy and sell lands on an everyday basis so why drag me in every deal? The case should be looked at for its merit and demerits. The said MLA is doing dirty politics and is trying to provoke people regularly. He speaks only from one side and tries to defame me.”
He also linked this to no alliance between the BJP and the Shiv Sena in the local body polls in January.
Sarnaik had shared photos of the meeting between the PM and Vohra, expressing confidence that the PM would ensure justice for his “schoolmate”. The X post seems to have been deleted since.
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What BJP MLA says on disputed land
According to Mehta, the landowner from whom Vohra purchased the land in 1989 sold that parcel, allegedly using fraudulent documents, to Swayam Builders in 2011.
According to him, a family of local land owners also had a share in the property. Mervyn Fernandes went to the revenue department in 2014, claiming 50 percent rights on the total land plot.
The family also moved the Thane court in 2014 which awarded Mervyn Fernandes the ownership of the 50 percent of that property, Mehta said.
“Mervyn did not sell this property to Vohra or Swayam (Builders) and instead sold it to some Mukesh Parekh and later in 2019. Our company Seven Eleven Construction bought that 50 percent from Fernandes and Parekh,” Mehta said.
But since the deal now stands cancelled, Mehta says he has nothing to do with the land, “and we have asked Mervyn to return our money. Let Vohra and Mervyn fight it out amongst themselves.”
As things stand, 50 percent of the land is claimed by Mervyn and the rest 50 percent by Swayam Builders, with Vohra claiming full ownership, and moving the Thane court. The matter still remains in the court.
ThePrint reached out to Vohra’s lawyer Nitin Mokashi via phone calls but he was unreachable. The report will be updated if he responds.
What Vohra alleges
Vohra had said that the matter concerned the 2,810-square metre prime plot in Navghar in Bhayander East that he had bought in 1989. He said that he had never sold or transferred it.
In 2011, forged documents were allegedly produced by Swayam and others and the land was divided into two parts, which was encroached upon by two firms, Swayam Builders and Seven Eleven Construction that year itself, he claimed.
He said he filed an FIR in the matter in 2015, but nothing moved.
Earlier this month, when he met PM Modi, he sought a CBI intervention. He said things have begun moving in the case, with municipal officials calling the management of the two firms on 16 September for an explanation.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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