When Parth Pawar sparked a controversy by visiting dreaded Pune gangster

A video of Parth with Gajanan alias Gaja Marne and his wife Jayshree had gone viral at the time. Parth visited the Marne couple along with a group of workers from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), including its then Pune unit chief Deepak Mankar and former mayor Dattatraya Dhankawade. A photograph of Marne felicitating Parth by giving him flowers was the talk of the town.

Facing heat over this issue, Ajit Pawar had then told media persons that Parth’s meeting with Marne was a “very wrong thing”.

According to the police, Marne is an active gangster to this day. His wife, Jayshree, a former corporator, had won a seat in the 2012 civic elections on a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) ticket.

As per police records, Marne has close to 30 serious criminal cases registered against him. He had had hit the headlines in February 2021 when a rally comprising dozens of luxury cars was taken out in his support on the Mumbai Expressway after he was released from Taloja prison, following his acquittal in a case pertaining to the murder of a rival gang member.

In the last two weeks, the Pune City police arrested Sunil Bansode, 42, and Rupesh Marne, 41, both top members of the Gaja Marne gang.

Land scam cases

Meanwhile, two cases of land scam have been registered against Digvijay Amarsinh Patil, director of Amadea Enterprises LLP, in which Parth Pawar is a partner. Interestingly, Parth has not been named as an accused in either case.

The first FIR was lodged at Bavdhan police station in Pimpri Chinchwad against Digvijay Patil, Sheetal Tejwani, and Ravindra Taru (now-suspended sub-registrar) on Thursday, for fraudulent purchase of 40 acres of land in the prime Koregaon Park area of Pune city, with a suspicious waiver of stamp duty worth Rs 5.89 crore. On Friday, Ajit Pawar said the agreement pertaining to this land deal stood cancelled.

Meanwhile, on Friday, another FIR was lodged at Khadak police station in Pune city, against Digvijay Patil, Tejwani, Pune city tehsildar Suryakant Yewale (now suspended) and others, in connection with an alleged scam involving government land in Pune’s Bopodi.

It is alleged in the FIR that between February 12, 2024, and July 1, 2025, Yewale, while performing his duties as tehsildar at the Mamledar Kacheri in Shukrawar Peth, misused his powers and conspired with other accused to issue an illegal order that they have ownership of around 13 acres of land in Bopodi, belonging to the government’s agriculture department.