Keswani, who was recently charged with abetment of suicide in another land-grabbing case and is currently out on bail, managed to procure a Conveyance Deed for a Rs 7-crore plot from the Ulhasnagar Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) B L Giri on October 20. However, not only does this violate the Urban Land Ceiling Act and the Displaced Persons Act, it also raises questions about the manner in which the order for issuance of the deed was signed by former chief minister NarayanRane.

The plot in question had been reserved for a playground and/or garden in the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation's Development Plan (DP) in 1987. As per the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, private individuals can neither acquire property reserved in the DP nor get such land transferred in their name.

Second, in order to procure the Conveyance Deed, Keswani had abruptly produced documents in 1998 indicating that the property's original owner, Valabhai Waghri, had given him power of attorney over the plot, even though Waghri died in 1960.

Third, the issuance of the Conveyance Deed violates the Urban Land Ceiling Act, which stipulates that no private individual can possess more than 1,800 sq mt of land. It also violates the Displaced Persons Act, which allows only refugees who migrated from Pakistan during Partition to transfer land in Ulhasnagar, an army camp-turned-refugee town. Since Waghri was not a refugee, the property cannot be transferred in Keswani's name.

Keswani hadfirst approached the then SDO Yashwant Gaikwad with a proposal to transfer the property to his name in 1998. When this failed, he allegedly approached the then Revenue Minister Narayan Rane in September that year.

However, though Rane had directed the civic administration to issue a No-Objection Certificate, the matter was kept in abeyance for about a year.

Then, in September 1999, Keswani approached Rane yet again. At the time, Rane, who had by then been appointed chief minister, still held charge of the state's Revenue Department.

Keswani then approached the incumbent SDO B L Giri, this time with a back-dated order from Rane directing that the Conveyance Deed be issued. Keswani finally received the coveted deed on October 20.

The matter was brought to light by Hasina Sheikh, an encroacher on the plot who nevertheless claims she cannot be evicted. Sheikh, who has issued a legal notice to the SDO regarding the issuance of the Conveyance Deed to Keswani, told Express Newsline: ``Keswani has offered memoney, he has threatened me and even forcefully tried to evict me. But I refuse to give up and run away. My family has lived here for over 38 years.''

Asked to comment on the Camp 1 plot, Keswani told Express Newsline: ``As long as I have all the documents, no one can do a thing about it.'' He also claimed he is the victim of ``political enmity''. Dissociating himself from the matter, SDO B L Giri said: ``Once there is a clear-cut order from the revenue minister, who am I to question it?'' Narayan Rane himself remarked: ``As minister or chief minister I passed so many orders.

It is very difficult to comment without studying all the papers in detail.''Meanwhile, while Keswani's reach extends as far as the state Secretariat, he has little support among local Sena leaders. Says the president of the party's city unit, Chandrakant Bodare: ``We have asked Anand Dighe (the Sena's Thane district president) to recommend Keswani's suspension from the party as he has been misusing his status as corporator forpersonal gain.''Keswani is currently in judicial custody in connection with a land-grabbing case at Shahad. On October 22, Keswani, assisted by hired goons, had turned up at Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and tried to evict slum-dwellers from a 3,200 sq mt plot. However, one of the slum-dwellers, Hamida Shaikh, tried to immolate herself to thwart the eviction. Keswani was subsequently charged with abetment of suicide.

He also faces charges in a chemical theft case at Ulhasnagar in July last year, apart from being charged with issuing threats in two other cases, also relating to 1998. Besides, he is the main accused in a 1994 bogus arrest warrant case in Gujarat, which is pending in the Supreme Court.