CIDCO Land Deal Sparks Rs 4,500-Crore Storm: Rohit Pawar Targets Minister Shirsat as Maharashtra Orders High-Level Probe

Mumbai: A massive political storm has erupted in Maharashtra over a ₹4,500-crore Navi Mumbai land allocation, with allegations of irregularities, forged documents, and political interference putting the state government under pressure ahead of the winter session.

At the centre of the controversy is a 61,000 sq. m. CIDCO plot linked to the Yashwant Bivalkar family, a land dispute that has remained tangled in litigation for decades. NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar has accused Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat, a key aide of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, of approving the land allotment during his tenure as CIDCO chairman — despite earlier rejections and the case still pending before the Supreme Court.

According to Pawar, Shirsat allegedly cleared the proposal in his very first CIDCO board meeting, overriding previous reports and affidavits that declared the Bivalkars ineligible under the 12.5% land compensation scheme meant for project-affected persons.

The dispute deepened after the forest department sought criminal action against the Bivalkar family and associated developers, accusing them of cheating, forgery, and grabbing forest and government land in Uran and Pen tehsils.

Responding to the mounting controversy, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday announced a six-member committee headed by the Konkan Divisional Commissioner to probe every aspect of the allegations. The panel includes senior forest officials, district collectors from Thane and Raigad, CIDCO’s Co-Managing Director, and top land records officers from both districts.

The decision comes just days before the state legislature’s winter session begins on December 8 in Nagpur, with the opposition gearing up to corner the government over the alleged scam.

The land under question was initially acquired in 1975 under the Maharashtra Private Forests Act. Although the Bombay High Court ruled in favour of the Bivalkar family in 2014, the decision was later stayed by the Supreme Court. Despite this, Pawar alleges that the Shinde-Fadnavis administration pushed ahead with the allotment.