PTI

Mumbai/Ahmednagar, Mar 28: Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee on Thursday lost possession of the land she had purchased near Shirdi after the Maharashtra government declared the transaction as illegal and formally took over the land.

"We had the final hearing today where it was concluded that the transaction done by Mukherjee was illegal and we have formally taken over its possession," Deputy District Collector, Ahmednagar, Nandkumar Suryavanshi said over the phone.

The actor, who had been served a legal notice in the case, had reportedly paid Rs 33 lakh in December 2005 for a non-transferable farmland near Shirdi.

After the purchase, Rani had paid a stamp duty of Rs 1.32 lakh for registration. But the title of the land could not be transferred to her name as it belonged to a farmer. The land was purchased in the name of Rani's father, Ram Mukherjee.

"We have conveyed to her lawyer that she could possess the land by applying for its regularisation to the Divisional Commissioner, Nashik. If he approves the application, then the actor has to pay 75 per cent of the prevailing market value of this 11,000 square feet land," Suryavanshi said.

According to him, Mukherjee's lawyer had not yet conveyed to him whether she would seek regularisation of the land.

"If she applies today, then the minimum amount payable would be around Rs 1.10 crore," he said.