Sanjay Raut accused Maharashtra ministers of Rs 50,000 crore land scam. Will Amit Shah act?

Yesterday, 19 August, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut shared that he had written a letter to union home minister Amit Shah, accusing Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde and former CIDCO chairman Sanjay Shirsat of involvement in what he described as a Rs 50,000 crore land scam in Raigad district.

In the letter, Raut alleged that nearly 4,078 acres of forest land had been unlawfully transferred to the Bivalkar family by the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO). He claimed that the transfer was facilitated through collusion between the state’s revenue department, the urban development department, CIDCO officials and various ministers.

“This scam, executed through the collusion of the revenue department, urban development department, CIDCO officials and ministers, has defrauded both the government and the public,” the letter stated.

Raut alleged that Shirsat had been “hurriedly” appointed as CIDCO chairman to expedite the transfer under the 12.5 per cent land allocation scheme, which compensates project-affected persons. He charged that the Bivalkar family, who had been deemed ineligible for three decades, was arbitrarily approved as a beneficiary. The family was originally allotted the land as saranjam inam (grants by the state for performance of civil or military duty or for the maintenance of the personal dignity of high-ranking officials) in 1936.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader further argued that while thousands of project-affected families in the region continue to be denied compensation under the scheme, land worth Rs 50,000 crore was allocated to one family without resistance.

“CIDCO officials shamelessly claim there is no land available for poor and marginalised projected affected families. Yet, astonishingly, no such obstacle arose when allocating land to the Bivalkar family alone,” he wrote.

Hon.⁦⁦@AmitShah⁩ ji
Jay Hind! pic.twitter.com/ub3fnbsq1m

— Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) August 19, 2025

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Raut claimed that at least Rs 20,000 crore from the alleged scam had been pocketed by Shinde and Shirsat, with Rs 10,000 crore said to have been directed to “bosses in Delhi”, a remark widely interpreted as pointing fingers at Shah himself.

Regardless of personal involvement, he held the union home minister “ultimately responsible” for the episode in any case, calling him the political head of Shinde’s party.

In his letter, Raut demanded the dismissal of Shinde and Shirsat from their posts and urged that criminal cases be registered against them. He also accused Shah of contributing to what he called the “destruction of Maharashtra’s development”.

The allegations come at a politically charged moment, just ahead of the the central government announcing its ‘anti-corruption’ Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament on 20 August — which provides for the removal of a minister of state or the Union of India in case they are detained or arrested for 30 days on serious charges of corruption, etc.

Also on the anvil is a Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which apparently proposes similar for the union territory specifically.

The bills have already sparked fierce opposition, with Congress MP K.C. Venugopal describing the proposals as a “murder of democracy”.

Raut’s charges are expected to intensify scrutiny of the government’s ‘anti-corruption’ platform, giving Opposition parties a handle to accuse the ruling establishment of double standards.

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