In Feb, Goa BJP govt agrees to buy Congress MLA’s land for crores. In Oct, he joins BJP

Those close to Manohar Parrikar say he was always in the reckoning for a senior BJP post at the Centre but was never too willing to leave Goa | Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Goa Congress MLA Subhash Shirodkar joined BJP this month. In February, BJP-led govt sanctioned Rs 70.44 crore to buy the land for an industrial estate.

Mumbai: Two weeks back, Goa’s wobbly Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government sought to prop up its position by inducting two defecting Congress legislators.

Subhash Shirodkar, one of the two defectors, it turns out, had gained big time earlier this year when the BJP government of ailing chief minister Manohar Parrikar fast-tracked the Rs 70.44-crore purchase of land which Shirodkar partly owned.

Shirodkar was the Congress MLA from Shiroda constituency in Ponda taluka in North Goa district.

The land purchase and Shirodkar’s subsequent defection has raised questions, causing the state Lokayukta to seek a report from the chief secretary. The Lokayukta has also asked the state government to furnish all records related to the land acquisition.

An investigation by ThePrint has found that the land acquisition was initiated in 2013, but had dragged on until earlier this year when the state government issued an order on 14 February, sanctioning an expenditure of Rs 70.44 crore for the purchase.

However, the acquisition went through several twists and turns during these five years, with the government even considering cancelling its acquisition plans.

The land in question — 1,87,825 sq m located in Shiroda — is being acquired for the second phase of the Shiroda industrial estate.

The government’s land records show that of the six survey numbers listed for acquisition, four are in the name of Vedanta Real Estate Developers. Shirodkar and three of his relatives — Amit Shirodkar, Umesh Shirodkar and Sattesh Shirodkar — are partners in Vedanta Real Estate Developers.

Court intervention

Shirodkar, who has also been state Congress president, owned 40 per cent in Vedanta Real Estate Developers. He told ThePrint he had gone to court in 2016 seeking compensation as the government had finalised the acquisition but hadn’t taken possession or paid the owners.

“I don’t want to talk about the issue in detail now, but we had approached the court in 2016 and got a ruling in our favour,” Shirodkar said.

Documents accessed by ThePrint show the government had told the court that it planned to drop the acquisition after which the case was disposed of in November 2016.

But the court also said that Shirodkar could approach it again and seek compensation if the government changed its mind and continued to pursue the acquisition.

“In the event respondent no. 1 (Goa government) decides not to drop the land acquisition, the petitioner is at liberty to file a fresh petition for the same reliefs as in the present petition,” the court had said.

In July 2017, the Parrikar cabinet even considered a proposal to denotify the entire 1.87 lakh sq m saying that while there is a land acquisition award dated October 2015, actual possession was never taken, sources said.

But seven months later, in February 2018, it went ahead and issued the order approving the Rs 70.44 crore acquisition.

Goa BJP president Vinay Tendulkar defended the transaction and said there was nothing wrong with it.

“There is nothing wrong in the land purchase. The state government had acquired Shirodkar’s land for an industrial estate but had not paid him, so he went to court. The government is only following court orders,” Tendulkar told ThePrint.

Under Lokayukta scanner

But the transaction has raised questions after Shirodkar joined the BJP this month, with Aires Rodrigues, a Goa-based advocate, filing a complaint with the Lokayukta against Shirodkar, Parrikar and the state’s chief secretary.

“This matter is now under the consideration of the Lokayukta,” chief secretary Dharmendra Sharma told ThePrint.

“We have to provide the authority with all the information first, which the secretary of the concerned department will do. So, at this point of time there is nothing that we can say about the issue.”

Shirodkar’s affidavit for the 2007 and 2012 Goa assembly polls showed that Vedanta Real Estate owned all the six survey numbers listed for acquisition by the Goa government.

In his affidavit for the 2012 polls, Shirodkar had said that he bought the land on a joint ownership on 31 October 2006 for Rs 1.08 crore. In the same affidavit, Shirodkar had said the prevailing market value of the land was Rs 3.72 crore.

The Goa government identified the land for acquisition in 2013 and finalised the land award on 26 October 2015. Subsequently, Shirodkar’s 2017 election affidavit did not mention the land as part of his assets even though the government had told the court it would drop the acquisition but had apparently not done so formally.

Mystery real estate firm

Jaideep Shirodkar, elected to represent Shiroda in the South Goa Zilla Panchayat, alleged Subhash Shirodkar’s company, Vedanta Real Estate, doesn’t have any address in Goa and nor does it seem to have any real estate projects.

“The company doesn’t have any address, any projects. It just owns the land that is now going to be acquired. The land in question is barren, and has a few other individual stakeholders too besides the company.”

Jaideep Shirodkar is likely to be Congress candidate against Subhash Shirodkar in the bypoll for the Shiroda assembly constituency.

Vedanta Real Estate cannot be found on the database of the Registrar of Companies either.

A senior Goa politician and a former minister familiar with the Shiroda area alleged that Vedanta Real Estate was formed only for the purpose of purchasing the land.

“In 2014, I had approached Subhash Shirodkar to buy the land in my personal capacity. At that time, he quoted a price of Rs 9 crore. But the deal did not go through as I was told the government is looking at it.”