The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Bombay High Court order directing registration of an FIR against Maharashtra MLC Dhananjay Munde in a case of an alleged illegal purchase of government land. The apex court has also issued notice to the Maharashtra government and the other complainants in the case.

But before the SC order came, police in Beed district registered a case of cheating and forgery against Munde and 13 others as per the high court’s June 11 directive. Munde, the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, had approached the Supreme Court against the high court’s order. “I welcome this SC’s decision. The truth has prevailed,” he said in a statement.

The high court, on Tuesday, had directed the police to file a case against the NCP leader in connection with alleged illegal purchase of government land in Pus village of Ambajogai tehsil in Beed district on a petition filed by one Rajabhau Phad. Phad had alleged that the land belonged to the government and was given to the Belkhandi Math as a gift when Ranit Wyanka Giri was its mahant (head).

As per the law, the land cannot be transferred without the government’s permission, the initial petition had said. Heirs of Ranit Wyanka Giri, the mahant of the Belkhandi Math when the land was given as a gift, transferred it in their names and claimed that they were its owners and the government was not informed about it.

—India Legal Bureau