MUMBAI, Nov. 4 -- The Sarvahara Jan Andolan (SJA), an NGO working with tribal communities, on Tuesday said that 21 tribal families at Mhatroli village in Alibag were forcibly relocated from their land in March 2024, a month after Sarojini Narwekar, wife of Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, purchased 15 acres of land there. The NGO also alleged that the families were threatened into signing documents consenting to their relocation. When contacted, Rahul Narwekar dismissed the allegations, saying that a three-year-old issue was being revived to defame him. He claimed that the previous owner, from whom his wife had purchased the land, had resettled the tribal families who had "encroached" on it. At a press conference in Mumbai, Ulka Mahajan of SJA and former IPS officer Sudhakar Suradkar said that the houses of the 21 families were demolished, and they were threatened into relocating to a plot two kilometres away which was inhabitable and owned by a third party. "Under a January 2017 notification, the government is required to transfer the land to these Katkari community members who had lived there for generations but it didn't," she said. "We have been demanding the registration of criminal cases against those involved." At the press conference, a villager Prema Naik said that four families had been paid Rs 2.50 lakh each to vacate the land. "Our signatures were taken on blank papers by a revenue officer, who told us that the new plot of land was being transferred in our names," she said. Another villager, Namdev Naik, alleged that the families were threatened into signing the documents. Mahajan said that the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission had also rejected the tribals' plea, but SJA was now seeking a review of the petition. Narwekar dismissed the tribals' grievances. "First, the original complaints pertained to a period when we were not even owners of the land," he said. "Even those complaints were subsequently voluntarily withdrawn through affidavits submitted to the tehsildar and videographed statements to the police. Not a single complaint is pending with either the police or the revenue authorities." Defending the previous owner, Narwekar said he had resettled the families, given them money and constructed houses for them, even carrying out repairs after complaints were raised. "The land in question did not even belong to the tribal families, as they had encroached on it," he said. Narwekar claimed that the government notification referred to by Mahajan did not exist. Somnath Lande, police inspector at Mandwa Coastal Police Station, said that no FIR had been registered. "Earlier, the statement of one Sumati Naik was recorded on the basis of a complaint filed by SJA," he said. "However, Sumati withdrew that statement eight days ago, saying she had no further grievances."...