Delhi: Rani Mukherjee has been served a legal notice by the Ahmednagar district collector in a land scam case in Maharashtra.

This comes after Rani paid Rs 33 lakh in December 2005 for a prime plot near Shirdi purchased in the name of Rani's father Ram Mukherjee. Following the purchase, Rani paid a stamp duty of Rs 1.32 lakh for registration. However, the title of the land could not be transferred to her name as it belonged to a farmer.

"The matter came to light when Rani's father Ram Mukherjee sent a representative to the Tehsildar office for final transfer of the land. It was then observed that it was a agriculture land and hence could not be sold to a non farmer," PTI quoted Suryavanshi as saying.

"Moreover, the land was originally under the jurisdiction of village panchayat. Today, it comes under the Municipal Corporation. For any construction, permission of Revenue Department is essential, which has not been taken by Rani Mukherjee. Hence, there was no record of her name in this land deal," he said.

Rani now has 15 days' to respond to the notice.