Regularisation row: Sattar denies accusation, says took step to help backward class individual

While accepting that he did pass the order for regularising the gairan land, Sattar said that despite the order, no change in the land records has yet been made and no loss to the government has been caused. The minister claimed that he took the decision as per the stipulated norms and orders of the courts as the decision was taken only in exceptional circumstances to benefit a backward class individual, hence it does not violate the Supreme Court’s order.  “I will accept the High Court’s decision. There is no truth in the allegations levelled against me. I did justice to a backward class individual, I did nothing wrong,’’ said Sattar.

The minister presented his explanation in the absence of the opposition, which had earlier boycotted the session to protest against the state government for allegedly protecting the minister in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) scam. However, the opposition didn’t name Sattar during its protests. Sattar also told the Assembly that he was not aware of the civil court’s order in regard to the land matter. During the last days of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, Sattar, in his capacity as the then minister of state for revenue, had passed an order regularising 37 acres of gairan land on June 17, 2022. The land, in Ghodbaghul village in Washim district, was handed over to one Yogesh Khandare by Sattar.

The Indian Express is in possession of a letter written by Washim District Collector S Shanmugarajan, dated July 5, 2022, to Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) Nitin Kareer, pointing out that execution of the order given by Sattar would amount to violation of orders given by the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court. Since then, the collector has not received any communication from additional CS’s office in this regard.