Agencies
Mumbai, Nov 16: Rani Mukherjee , who duped people on reel in the mega hit Bunty Aur Babli , has been allegedly duped in real life.
Rani has been allegedly duped of Rs 33 lakh in a fake land deal in a village near temple town of Shirdi in Maharashtra.
Wanting to build a house in Shirdi near Kopargaon in Ahmednagar district, Rani purchased a 11,000 square feet land in 2005 from one Sampat More. But she was unaware of the fact that it was non-transferable farmland and hence could not be sold.
"After the purchase, Rani paid a stamp duty of Rs 1.32 lakh for registration in the tehsildar office but the ownership of the land could not be transferred to her name as it was government land leased out to a farmer," Sub Divisional Officer Srirampur Nandkumar Suryavanshi said on Wednesday.
On realising that she was on the verge of losing Rs 34 lakh, Rani approached Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh a couple of days ago for help. Deshmukh then asked the Ahmednagar Collector to inquire into the matter.
"Now our office will send notices to Rani and More along with all the other previous buyers and ask how the land was sold without permission," he said.
Rani has now two options before her. Either she recovers money from the seller or pays some more amount as fine and get the land regularised.
The land was originally owned by Maharashtra State Farming Corporation, which comes under the state Revenue Department.
In 1977, the Corporation had given on lease 1.8 hectare of land to one farmer named Raman Shivsagar. In 1981, Shivsagar made 20 small pieces of the land and began selling it.
One such piece of 11,000 sq ft was sold to P Sonawane, who sold it to one Kanhaiyalal Khatri. This way, the land passed to three more buyers, Sampat More being the last buyer before it went to Rani in 2005.
"The matter came to light when Rani's father Ram Mukherjee sent a representative to the Tehsildar office for final transfer of the land. It was then observed that it was a agriculture land and hence could not be sold to a non farmer," Suryavanshi said.
"Moreover, the land was originally under the jurisdiction of village panchayat. Today, it comes under the Municipal Corporation. For any construction, permission of Revenue Department is essential, which has not been taken by Rani Mukherjee. Hence, there was no record of her name in this land deal," he said.
According to sources, there are at least 17 such cases of land deals awaiting Revenue Department's approval.
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