Indore: Rs 250 crore land scam declared fake

• Police had filed criminal cases against 27 people, ED also took action
• The FIR filed with a fine of Rs 50,000 on Collector-SP was declared void

Indore. The Indore bench of the High Court has declared the much talked about St Teresa land scam of Dhar as fake, in which the then Collector-SP and other top officials had lodged an FIR against 27 people, calling it a scam of Rs 250 crore, in which some people went to jail and some had to abscond. ED had also taken action in this case, but now the High Court has not only condemned the action taken by the Collector-SP, but also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 and declared the FIR void and invalid. This land located in Magajpura was donated by Maharaja Panwar for a women’s hospital and doctors’ bungalow. About 10 acres of this land was sold to many people through fake documents.

Due to government and political pressure, many times the government machinery takes arbitrary action, many examples of which have been coming to light. Especially the action taken by CBI and ED has also been questioned. A similar case came to light regarding St. Teresa land, in which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also took action some time back, in which raids were also conducted at the houses of more than a dozen people. Actually, the land of survey number 29 Magajpura is registered in the name of St. Teresa and on the complaint of Panda resident of Mhow, 3 years ago, Dhar police registered an FIR against 27 people, in which the main accused were Sudhir Jain and his family members, who were accused of misappropriating land worth Rs 250 crore. According to the government guidelines, the price of this land was about Rs 12 crore, which the government-administration claimed to be worth Rs 250 crore, making headlines and demanding an investigation into other land scams on the same lines. Whereas the person Jaisingh Thakur who filed the said fake complaint also has several criminal cases registered against him. Despite this, the then Collector and SP registered an FIR and also arrested some people. Thereafter, the petitioners Aayushi Jain and Sarita Jain knocked the doors of Indore High Court, from where a 14-page decision came just now, in which the action taken by the top officials was condemned and a fine of Rs 50,000 was also imposed on them and the FIR was declared null and void. That is, the land scam of Rs 250 crore, which the police-administration said, proved to be completely fake. In fact, in the revenue records, the said land of St. Teresa is recorded as Survey No. 29, Magajpura, which was donated by Maharaja Anandrao Pawar of Dhar State on 19 August 1895 for a women’s hospital and bungalows for doctors. Later, a complaint was made about the sale of this land on the basis of fake documents, on which the Kotwali police registered an FIR against 27 people on 28 November 2021 and later the ED also started its investigation.