A high profile BJP MLA from Madhya Pradesh has come under the scanner for allegedly purchasing huge land parcel in three districts of Madhya Pradesh belonging to Sahara group that, as per the Supreme Court order, was to be sold at market price and the amount generated from that was to be used to return the money that was deposited by small time investors in the chit-fund that was run by the Sahara group. As per documents, 310 acres of land owned Sahara in Bhopal, Jabalpur and Katni, whose market price was Rs 1000 crore was sold to the companies allegedly owned by the BJP MLA for a paltry Rs 88 crore.
As per documents, the land parcel was however purchased by companies allegedly owned by the said BJP MLA at a very low price than the market rate and even that money was deposited in accounts that were managed by the Sahara groups, and allegedly, shell companies rather than the Supreme Court mandated bank account.
The said MLA in question, Sanjay Pathak, seen as one of the closest associates of former CM and present union minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, had won the election from his traditional Vijayraghavgarh seat in Katni district. He had left the Congress in March 2014 after much efforts were put by Chouhan to bring him into the BJP. Pathak, one of the richest people’s representatives of the state owns assets worth more than Rs 200 crore and has interest in mining apart from other business. His father Satyendra Pathak was a minister in the earlier Digvijaya Singh cabinet.
In July 2023, a portal had been launched to refund the money of the Sahara investors, most of whom are from rural and semi-urban areas, across 26 states.
To escape future potential allegations of trying to save one of its own, the Mohan Yadav administration acted swiftly and on Wednesday, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Madhya Pradesh police registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) to probe the alleged irregularities in these deals, which were executed between 2022-2023. The PE has been, however, registered against officials of Sahara Housing Corporation Investment Group, various companies authorised by the Sahara Group for land sale, the concerned revenue officers and others while Pathak has not been named in the PE.
Official sources said that Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited and Sahara Housing Corporation Investment Group had purchased land in various cities by raising funds from investors with the objective of building Sahara City.
“During 2014, the Supreme Court had given permission to the Sahara Group to sell the company’s property to return the money of the investors. The apex court had granted permission to sell on a condition that the amount received from the sale will be deposited by the buyer directly in SEBI-Sahara Refund bank account of Bank of India, Bandra Branch, Mumbai. In compliance of the top court’s directives, Sahara Group sold around 110 acres of land situated in Maksi, Bhopal to M/S Synap Real Estate Private Limited for Rs 48 crores, similarly, around 100 acres of land in Jabalpur for Rs 20 crores to M/S Nyra Devbuild Private Limited and around 100 acres of land in Katni for Rs 20 crores Nysa Devbuild. Sahara Group sold approximately 310 acres of land for around Rs 90 crores. However, Sahara Group itself had earlier valued the Bhopal land alone at Rs 125 crores itself after an evaluation conducted before the Supreme Court in 2014,” an official source told the Sunday Guardian quoting the statement shared by the EOW.
According to him, despite the Supreme Court’s order to deposit the amount received from the sale of land in Bhopal in SEBI’s account, Sahara Group allegedly violated the order and deposited the amount in the accounts of Sahara India Real Estate Limited, Sahara Housing Investment Corporation and private shell companies.
BJP MLA Pathak has come under the scanner as all the companies mentioned by the EOW are , allegedly, owned by him through his relatives.
The Supreme Court order in this case was delivered on 4 June 2014 by the bench of Chief Justice T.S Thakur and Justice AK Sikri in the case titled SEBI vs Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd and others in which they had detailed on how Sahara group will refund the deposits that it had taken from “From general public including cobblers, labourers, artisans and peasants”.
In its order, the Supreme Court had stated that “Immovable properties owned by Sahara Group of companies situated in 9 different cities with an estimated value of Rs.2500/- crores are permitted to be sold by the companies/other entities persons in whose names such properties are held subject to the condition that such sales are not for a price lower than the estimated value indicated in the statement filed before this Court or the circle rates fixed for the area in which such properties are situated. The seller shall furnish to this Court the details of the valuation of the properties sold and the terms of sales together with a declaration that the purchaser is not a related party qua Saharas. Needless to say that upon deposit of the sale consideration the title deeds of the property shall be released by SEBI in favour of the purchaser(s). The sale consideration of the properties less transaction cost and statutory dues on the same shall be deposited with the SEBI.”
As per the Supreme Court order , the proceeds from the sale would be directly deposited into the SEBI-Sahara Refund Account, number 012210110003740, Bank of India, Bandra, Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Documents submitted to the EOW includes a regulatory filing by Directors of Synap real estate private limited, Jabalpur dated 31 March 2022 that shows Yash Pathak, who is the son of Sanjay Pathak and Nirmala Pathak, the mother of Sanjay Pathak hold 50000 equity shares each of this company.
The remaining 5.40 crore shares are held by M/S Euro Pratik Ispat India Private Limited.
Significantly, on 22 February 2022, the board of directors of Synap real estate private limited had passed a resolution to allot 5.40 crore shares with a face value of Rs 10 per shares, totalling Rs 54 crore to Euro Pratik ISpat Private Limited that shows that Euro Pratik has a major financial stake in Synap real Estate.
Similarly, both Yash and Nirmala hold 50000 equity shares each of Nyra devbuild and they are the only two shareholders in this company.
One of the directors of this company is Sachin Tiwari, who is the convenor of BJP IT Cell, Katni.
Talking to the Sunday Guardian, the complainant in this case, Ashutosh Dixit Manu, a whistleblower and youth activist who was earlier associated with the Congress party more than five years ago, said that the Pathak was able to get land worth Rs 1000 crore for less than Rs 100 crore in which local revenue officials were also involved as they converted the usage in land records from ‘residential’ to ‘agriculture’ so that Pathak had to pay minimal stamp duty.
“Since public money was involved, the sale of Sahara’s lands should have been conducted in the same way that banks sell properties, through an auction process. In this entire matter, the transparent process of auction was not followed and in the three cities of Katni, Jabalpur, and Bhopal, the lands were quietly sold to companies associated with a single person, Sanjay Pathak. As per market value, the price of land of Rs 1000 crore was brought by companies of Pathak for Rs 98 crore,” he claimed.
The Sunday Guardian shared a detailed questionnaire with Pathak, the three companies that bought these land parcels Euro Pratik Ispat, Nysa Devbuild, Synap Real Estate Private Limited, and SEBI seeking their response on this matter.