Crusader against corruption and India Against Corruption activist, Anna Hazare, who is fighting tooth and nail for a stronger Lok Pal Bill in Delhi, is found involved a land grab and selling case. This was discovered when the Supreme Court on Tuesday scanned some documents pertaining to an old case.

The documents revealed that a prime Pune plot belonging to the central Gandhi Smarak Nidhi was allegedly usurped by its Maharashtra chapter and handed over to a realtor-developer for Rs 1.62 crore in 1999. Hazare was a prominent member of Maharashtra Gandhi Smarak Nidhi when the alleged land grab and sale happened. The case has now been brought to Supreme Court by Pune’s charity commissioner after passing through the district court and Bombay High Court.

The central Gandhi Smarak Nidhi informed a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and S S Nijjar on Tuesday that the illegal transfer of title from the main unit to the state unit was done surreptitiously and illegally in 1977 and it came to light only in 1999 after a part of the property was handed over to Rohan Builders for Rs 1,62,92,500. Both the appellate charity commissioner and district court held that the Maharashtra unit had no title over the land, which belonged to the central Nidhi. However, the high court asked the district court to reconsider the Maharashtra unit’s contention that the central body took 24 years, until 2001, to challenge the transfer of property to the builder.

Appearing for the central Nidhi in SC, senior advocate U U Lalit and counsel Neela Gokhale said an appeal against the illegal transfer of title in 1977 was filed in 2001 before the joint charity commissioner, which held that the state unit had no ownership over the property and hence could not have transferred a portion of it to the builder. In this appeal before joint charity commissioner, Kisanrao Baburao aka Anna Saheb Hazare was shown as respondent number 8 as a member of the state unit.