2G scam: Sharad Pawar’s DB link reinforced via Eon-Panchshil

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s connection with Eon Aviation Private Limited — the firm owned by 2G scam accused Shahid Balwa’s DB Realty group — is not limited to travelling with Balwa in an Eon plane.

Following Balwa’s arrest by the CBI in the 2G spectrum allocation scam in February, Eknath Khadse, leader of opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, had drawn attention to a February 2010 Eon Aviation flight to Dubai in which Pawar, his wife Pratibha and four others had travelled along with Balwa and his partner Vinod Goenka. The NCP had defended Pawar by denying that he knew Balwa or had any association with him.

Investigations by DNA have revealed a deeper connection between Eon Aviation and the Pune-based Panchshil Realty group, in which Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule and son-in-law Sadanand hold minority stakes.

Documents show that Panchshil Realty’s promoter Atul Chordia has a close business relationship with Shahid Balwa’s DB Realty. As reported by DNA earlier, the Chordias are close family friends of Sharad Pawar. In barely 15 years, they have created a massive real estate empire through their Panchshil Realty group in Pune.

The links between the Panchshil Realty group and Eon Aviation are strong as DB Realty’s February 5, 2010, prospectus for its public offer listed Panchshil’s promoter Atul Chordia and his brother Sagar with 5,000 shares each in Eon Aviation.  The same document also listed Atul and Sagar Chordia as directors of Eon Aviation, as of December 2009.

The Pune-based EON Hadapsar Infrastructure Private Limited, of which Atul Chordia is a director, holds 9.90lakh shares (7.07%) in Eon Aviation Private Ltd, said the IPO prospectus.

The presence of Eon Aviation’s office in the Panchshil Tech Park One premises in Pune clearly points to a business association between Supriya Sule’s firm and the DB Realty group firm.

BD&P Hotels (India) Pvt Ltd held the majority stakes in Eon Aviation (92.85%) with 13 million shares. BD&P Hotels (India) Pvt Ltd, in turn, held majority stakes from DB Hospitality Pvt Ltd and issued 4,000 preference shares to Balwa.

Also, Eon Aviation’s former CEO Anil Ummat has said in his LinkedIn profile that during 2008-10 he was the CEO as well as a senior vice president at Panchshil Realty. A company representative told DNA that Ummat left Panchshil Realty “three months ago”.

During and after the DNA investigations into the Panchshil Realty and DB Realty properties on Survey No 191 (A), (Pawar’s DB link in Pune, DNA, April 15, 2011), Panchshil’s promoter Atul Chordia asserted on two occasions that he had no links with DB Realty or Shahid Balwa.

He even emphasised that the Panchshil Park Tech One IT complex, which has investments from Supriya and Sadanand Sule, had nothing to do with DB Realty with whom Panchshil shares the controversial Survey No 191 (A) at Yerawada.

But DNA investigations now prove that Chordia, whose firm has investments from the Sharad Pawar family, has a history of a close business relationship with Balwa’s DB Realty.