English
English
English
PM Narendra Modi with his schoolmate Asgar Ali Vora and BJP MLA Narendra Mehta (Img: Dynamite News)
Mumbai: An old land dispute involving 81-year-old Asgar Ali Vora, a schoolmate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has taken a fresh turn after Vora met the PM Modi and sought intervention in the matter.
Days after that meeting, BJP MLA Narendra Mehta said he would relinquish possession of the disputed plot in Maharashtra’s Mira-Bhayandar, return the construction permission associated with it and withdraw a police complaint filed against Vora following a settlement between the two sides.
Vora, who studied with PM Modi at BN School in Vadnagar, Gujarat, met him on September 8. During the meeting, Vora raised his long-running dispute over a plot of land in Navghar, Bhayandar East.
According to Vora, he purchased around 2,810 square metres of land through a registered agreement in 1989 and never sold or transferred the property.
He alleged that forged documents were prepared in 2011 and that the property was subsequently divided into two portions without his knowledge. Vora further alleged that different builders were later shown as having rights or possession over the two portions of the disputed property.
Vora has alleged that one portion of the property was shown in the possession of Swayam Builders, while the other was linked to Seven Eleven Constructions, associated with Narendra Mehta.
He also questioned how construction permission was granted by the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation’s Town Planning Department despite his claim over the land.
Vora has sought a CBI investigation into the alleged forgery and has questioned the role of builders and government officials in the matter. He has also alleged that his complaints to municipal, revenue and police authorities did not receive effective action.
Vora said an FIR relating to the alleged forgery was registered in 2015, but claimed that the CID report in the case was submitted only in 2026. He questioned the delay and alleged that political pressure could have been involved. These allegations have been made by Vora and are not independently established in the report.
Following Vora’s meeting with PM Modi, senior Maharashtra officials took up the matter.
A meeting was held at the state secretariat on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Shrikar Pardeshi. Vora and Mehta attended the meeting along with Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation Commissioner Radha Vinod Sharma and Town Planner Purushottam Shinde.
During the meeting, Mehta submitted a letter to the Town Planning Department stating that he was relinquishing possession of the disputed land and returning the construction permission.
In his letter, Mehta stated that the land had been purchased from Mervyn Fernandes in 2019.
The development did not stop at the disputed property.
In a separate letter to the police commissioner, Mehta said he was withdrawing his earlier complaint against Vora after the two sides reached a settlement.
The move effectively changes the immediate course of the dispute, although Vora has continued to seek an investigation into the alleged forgery and the circumstances surrounding the property records.
For now, the disputed land has been handed back to Vora following the settlement, while questions raised by him regarding the alleged forged documents, construction permissions and the delay in the investigation remain part of the wider dispute.
The case has drawn attention because of the unusual sequence of events surrounding it. Vora, who says he has been fighting over the property for years, met his former schoolmate PM Modi on September 8. Within days, the matter was taken up at the Maharashtra government level, followed by Mehta’s decision to relinquish possession, return the construction permission and withdraw his police complaint.
Vora, however, has sought a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities, meaning the settlement over possession does not by itself resolve all the questions he has raised about the history of the property and the alleged forgery.
