Mahendra Singh Dhoni comes out of the registry office after the land registry in Ranchi. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, Aug. 10: While the real estate price in the capital is going north, Team India ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been “gifted” 35.7 decimals (less than half an acre) of land at Kathitand, about 15km from here, for building a farmhouse.

Lal Gopal Sharan Nath Shahdeo, the heir of Ratu Maharaja, “gifted” the plot adjacent to his new palace to Dhoni even as the registry deed mentions the transfer of land as a case of a sale.

“The land gift offer was made by Shahdeo. As Dhoni and his family has a long-standing relationship with the heirs of Ratu Maharaja, Mahi simply could not afford to refuse the proposal,” said a close associate of Shahdeo.

Shahdeo, also the Congress legislator from Hatia, the area where Dhoni resides, have been nurturing a dream to stay near the “new maharaja of Jharkhand”, sources said.

Three plots, each measuring 11.9 decimals, was registered in the name of Dhoni, his father Pan Singh and mother Devki Devi at Ranchi district sub-registrar’s office on Saturday.

“The land, about 1km from the NH-75, is not a costly plot. The registry deed mentions that it is a sale,” said Shahdeo Mehra, the Ranchi district sub-registrar.

The registry office files reveal that Shahdeo conferred the power of attorney on one Kamleshwar Singh, reportedly the manager of the former, enabling him to sign on sale deed documents as seller, while Dhoni and his parents have been mentioned as purchasers.

At present Dhoni stays either in the Shyamali Colony quarters allotted to his father by SAIL (Pan Singh was an employee of SAIL) or at the North Office Para apartment of his brother-in-law Gautam Gupta.

Dhoni is constructing a palatial house on the plot “gifted” to him by the state government in posh Harmu Housing Colony, while insiders conceded that Dhoni has purchased quite a few flats in Hinoo area.