Mumbai: Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh has landed in a controversy over the allotment of a 2.55-lakh-square-meter plot for an agro-processing unit in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area in Latur in central Maharashtra. The land was allotted to his company, Desh Agro Private Limited, within three weeks of its formation and a mere ten days after an application was made for the allotment.
The land was allotted at a concessional rate of ₹605 per square meter, adding up to an expense of ₹15.29 crore for the company, which had proposed to set up a solvent extraction plant. Riteish and his actor wife Genelia Deshmukh are partners with equal shares in the company. Questions are also being raised about the loan of ₹116 crore given to the company by the Latur district central cooperative bank in October 2021 and July 2022.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s district unit, which obtained the information under the Right to Information (RTI), has alleged that the allotment of the land was an example of the misuse of power.
Riteish is the son of former Maharashtra chief minister, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, and brother of Congress leader Amit Deshmukh, who was a minister in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government during whose tenure the allotment happened. Amit was also guardian minister of Latur district.
District BJP president Gurunath Mage said that the allotment of the plot in the heart of the district was done out of turn when 16 other eligible applicants had been waiting for over three years. “The allotment was done within a month of the formation of the company, which was registered on March 23 with a share capital investment of ₹7.50 crore,” he alleged.
MIDC allots land to industrial units at concessional rates to promote industry. Most of the time, the land is given away at the same cost that MIDC incurred to procure it. Land is mostly allotted on a priority basis through auctioning.
Mage said that the allotment of the plot was made by the MIDC on April 15, just ten days after the application was submitted by the company. A high-level committee of officials had cleared the proposal in Mantralaya on April 9, he added. “The allotment was done at the rate of ₹605 per square meter. The land was handed over to the company on July 22, while the district cooperative bank allotted it the first instalment of the loan worth ₹61 crore on October 27,” he said.
Pradeep More, BJP’s district city vice-president said, “Cooperative banks are meant to financially support units run on a cooperative basis. The district cooperative bank, which was controlled by Riteish Deshmukh’s uncle and former minister Diliprao Deshmukh, disbursed ₹116 crore to Riteish in the span of just five months. Riteish’s brother used his political clout to get the land allotted out of turn, and his uncle ensured the funding. This is a misuse of power.”
Asked about the allegations, Desh Agro Private Limited issued a statement through its administrative manager Dinesh Kesare. “The allegations levelled by BJP leaders are baseless and factually incorrect,” reads the statement. “The MIDC land allotted on lease is as per the set rules. Ritesh and Genelia are known to be law-abiding and socially responsible citizens. The loans allotted to them by financial institutions, too, are as per the rules. The company has been set up for the promotion of agri-based industry. The facility aims to operate in soyabean-processing and production of special soyabean products. We request BJP leaders to not oppose the upcoming agri-based industrial facility.”
