Ahmednagar, March 17: Farmers of Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district have alleged that Nirav Modi, the billionaire diamond trader involved in multi-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, purchased land from them at a very cheap rate by using "wrong and fraud" means. According to reports in Jansatta, the farmers have begun farming on the 250-acre land.

Farmers in locality say that the diamond merchant purchased their land for Rs. 10,000 per acre whereas the actual price of their land was Rs. 20 lakhs per acre. Though the farmers haven't clearly stated how Nirav Modi managed to obtain land from them at such a low rate compared to the market prize, they have decided to take over the 250-acre land that now, belongs to Modi. The farmers declared that they will also take on the "Land-Mafias" who have taken large areas of land under their control.

This is the latest piece of information to come in the Nirav Modi-PNB scam case. It's hardly been a week since farmers from Maharashtra's Nashik started a 180 km long walk to Mumbai called as "Farmers March", which culminated in the state government agreeing to the major demands of the farmers. It will be interesting to track the further developments in this case as farmers issue is a sensitive topic particularly in Maharashtra as farmers have been demanding complete loan waiver- one of the reasons why the farmers walked 180 kilometers to show their protest. On Friday, Anna Hazare, the anti-corruption crusader and respected social worker from Maharashtra, declared that he would be beginning his agitation or "Satyagraha" in Delhi on March 23 on farmers issues. Anna, taking to news agency ANI, also said that he had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for space to organise his protest, though he didn't inform what was the prime minister's reply to his demand.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 17, 2018 06:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).