Bengaluru: Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav who is in the dock over the land grab issue in Anekal and a questionable deal in Devanahalli involving his family, made a killing in 1996 by converting the agricultural land and developing it into township, according to the developer of Windflower Prakruti Resorts.
P. Sasi Bhushan, Managing Director and promoter of Baba Developers, Windflower Prakruti Resorts told Deccan Chronicle on Monday that he had paid Rs 4.5 lakhs per acre in 1996 to Jadhavs.
"At the time, the going rate was Rs 2 to 3 lakhs in that area. We found that this was a 16 acre single land parcel, so we paid a premium for the property. However we requested them to apply for conversion and a plan sanction, in their name,'' he said.
The Jadhav family bought 16 acres of land in Hegganahalli in Tarabai Maruthirao Jadhav's name through two sale deeds executed on February 28, 1985 and September 2, 1985 at Kundana hobli in Devanahalli taluk for Rs 48,000, according to Form 15 (Encumbrance Certificate). The result was that in over 10 years, the Jadhav family sold the lands for Rs 72 lakhs, at a good 2,000 percent appreciation.
Following the DC investigations into the land, the man behind the Windflower Prakruti Resorts, P. Sasi Bhushan has come out to say that Jadhavs turned into realtors at his behest since he couldn't buy agricultural land because of stringent rules such as the Karnataka Land Revenue Act (KLR). He is the promoter of Baba Developers which owns the land holdings now.
Speaking to DC, he said: “Since Baba Developers Pvt. Ltd. couldn't purchase agriculture land, on our request, Mrs. Tarabai Maruti Jadhav agreed to sell the converted land. But conversion charges were borne by us, as per the understanding and we got conversion of the land on 15.5.1997. Since the conversion was in the name of Mrs. Tarabai Maruti Jadhav, on our request she applied for Layout sanction and the Layout was sanctioned on 06.08.1997.
Charges for sanction of layout were also borne by Baba Developers Pvt. Ltd. After getting sanction of layout, layout was developed by Baba Developers Pvt. Ltd., at their cost in 1997. Baba Developers Pvt. Ltd., who were film makers and have a good relationship with film stars Chiranjeevi, Rajinikant and D. Ramanaidu, identified them as buyers and requested Mrs Tarabai Maruti Jadhav to directly register the properties.
"The balance payment that we were supposed to pay Mrs. Tarabai Maruti Jadhav was paid directly by these people towards the cost of the land. She acceded to our request and she came for registration several times. After that, she expressed her inability to come to Devanahalli to register the rest of the plots because of her age. Later the remaining plots were sold through GPA''.
The developer acknowledged that the deal was completed in 1996, before the conversion was done, at a cost of Rs 4.5 lakhs per acre. What this means is that the Jadhavs stuck a deal to sell agricultural land to a non-agriculturist, which is prohibited in Karnataka and used the developer's funds to change the status of land, get approvals for the layout and directly sold plots to film stars.
After fresh revelations, it now appears to be a question of probity and propriety. Throughout, Mr. Jadhav has maintained that his mother sold agricultural land to buy another patch of agricultural land. With the developer stating that the Jadhavs received money for land transaction from filmstars in lieu of the balance payment by the developer, this now stands exposed.
The entire ownership of the township was transferred in bits and pieces, and it was purely a profitable venture involving the developer as Mr. Sasi Bhusan himself confirms that the last 7 plots of township was registered in the developer's name, in the end.
