Amravati land: Patils MLA son to write to Sonia

The 43-year-old Shekhawat,also known as Raosaheb,said he was pained to see that the issue had been contorted when the facts were simply to the contrary. There is no question of land grabbing. In fact,the land is still not in possession with us. It is only an issue related to measurement of our land that was wrongly done,which will now be rectified, he said. I am distressed that such charges are being unnecessarily levelled at our family. Let anyone show one document proving that we have grabbed the land, Shekhawat said. The first-time MLA from Amravati,who won after being given a ticket replacing sitting minister Sunil Deshmukh,said the issue had been blown out of proportion by his detractors. It is not Kishore Bansod who is doing it,but those who lost the elections against me, he said.

Displaying revenue department documents and the recent court order relating to the controversial land,Shekhawat said the matter actually dated back to 1964 when his grandfather Ramsingh Jagansingh Shekhawat purchased 7 acres from Mansingh and Madhukar Dikey in Chandrapur village in Amravati district. The elder Shekhawat filed a case before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court against the Dikeys when they refused to execute a sale deed. In 1982,the court ruled in Shekhawats favour and mutation of the land was done subsequently in the name of five relatives. However,complications arose after a farmer,Kishore Bansod,who owned the adjacent land,said two acres of his land had been included in Shekhawats plot. It was based on this contention that re-measurement of the land was ordered last week.

The problem arose because it was an old case and there were no proper records then. The measurement had been wrongly done,which is why the SDM has now ordered re-measurement, said Rajendra Shekhawat, adding that the value of the land was insignificant and he had not even seen it. Shekhawat said his family would take possession of the land only when the matter was fully resolved.