Eighty-one-year-old Asgar Ali Vora, a childhood schoolmate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has successfully reclaimed his disputed property in Mira-Bhayandar, Maharashtra. The land was returned by BJP MLA Narendra Mehta just days after Vora met with the Prime Minister to seek his intervention in the decades-old property dispute.
The Decades-Old Land Dispute
Vora, who studied alongside PM Modi at BN School in Vadnagar, Gujarat, originally purchased the 2,810-square-meter plot in Navghar, Bhayandar East, in 1989. During his meeting with the Prime Minister on September 8, Vora alleged that his property had never been sold or transferred. Instead, he claimed that forged documents were created in 2011 to illegally divide the land into two portions.
One section was reportedly linked to Swayam Builders, while the other was tied to Seven Eleven Constructions, a firm associated with MLA Narendra Mehta. Vora also accused the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation’s Town Planning Department of granting construction permits on the disputed site despite his clear ownership claims. Frustrated by years of inaction from municipal, revenue, and police officials—and citing a delayed CID report for an FIR he filed in 2015—Vora ultimately sought a CBI probe into the matter.
Swift Action and Resolution
Following Vora’s high-level meeting with PM Modi, the Maharashtra state government swiftly mobilized. On Tuesday, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Shrikar Pardeshi chaired a crucial meeting at the state secretariat, attended by Vora, Mehta, and top municipal officials.
As a result of the intervention, MLA Narendra Mehta submitted a formal letter to the Town Planning Department, officially relinquishing possession of the disputed land and surrendering the construction permits. Mehta, who claimed he had purchased the land from a man named Mervyn Fernandes in 2019, also wrote to the police commissioner to withdraw his previous complaint against Vora, citing a mutual settlement between the two parties.
