Robert Vadra, Congress President Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in Jaipur on Tuesday, 12 February, in connection with the alleged Bikaner land scam.
Vadra arrived with his mother, Maureen, who also appeared before ED at the agency’s zonal office on the Bhawani Singh Road in Jaipur on Tuesday, reported ANI.
Priyanka Gandhi, Vadra's wife and Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh East was expected to accompany her husband to the ED office on Tuesday, Congress sources told IANS.
This will be the fourth time that Vadra appears before the agency.
Posters of Vadra, Priyanka & Rahul Gandhi Put Up
Posters of Robert, Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi have been put up in the area around the ED office in Jaipur, reported ANI.
Slogans of ‘Priyanka Gandhi Zindabad’ and ‘Chowkidaar Chor Hai’ were also raised by Congress supporters outside the ED office.
Vadra’s Statement To Be Recorded Under PMLA
The agency had grilled Vadra for about 24 hours over three sessions last week in the national capital. On the last three occasions, Vadra appeared before the ED in Delhi in connection with a money laundering probe over alleged role in procuring assets abroad in an illegal manner.
Tuesday’s appearance was directed by the Rajasthan High Court, which had asked Robert Vadra and his mother to cooperate with ED after the accused had approached HC, seeking directions that no coercive action be taken against them.
Officials said the investigating officer (IO) of the case will record the statement of Vadra and his mother under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In the Bikaner case, the agency had summoned Vadra thrice but he failed to appear and later approached the court.
The ED had registered a criminal case in connection with the deal in 2015, taking cognisance of a clutch of FIRs and charge sheets filed by the Rajasthan Police after the tehsildar of Bikaner complained about alleged forgery in the allotment of land in the area, considered sensitive due to its proximity to the India-Pakistan border.
ED, it is understood, wants to question Vadra about the operations of a firm – Ms Skylight Hospitality Private Limited, allegedly linked to him – which had purchased land in the area. It also wants to confront Vadra with the statements of those said to be linked to him, reported PTI.
The agency was also probing the role of a big steel firm that gave loans to a company that bought the land from firms linked to Vadra at an inflated price, official sources said.
The agency, in the past, had also raided the premises of people linked to Vadra, such as Mahesh Nagar and a few others. In December 2017, ED had arrested Ashok Kumar, a close associate of Nagar, and another person, Jaiprakash Bagarwa. Nagar is also believed to be associated with Ms Skylight Hospitality Private Limited.
ED had searched the premises of both Kumar and Nagar in April 2017.
Nagar was the “authorised representative” in four cases of land purchase in Bikaner. Kumar, the agency alleged, had purchased land in the same area using the “power of attorney” of others.
ED Probing Case Related Land Purchase By Firm
The ED probe in the case is related to the purchase of a land measuring 275 bigha allegedly by the company in Bikaner's Kolayat area a few years ago.
The ED, in the past, had also issued notices to the firm and obtained certain documents from it.
The agency has also attached assets worth Rs 1.18 crore of government officials and others in connection with the case under the provisions of the PMLA.
However, the agency has not mentioned Vadra’s name in its FIR filed under PMLA, instead naming some Rajasthan government officials and “land mafia.”
What is The Case About?
The Rajasthan government had, in January 2015, cancelled the mutations (transfer of land) of 374.44 hectares of land, after the land department claimed to have found that the allotments were made in the names of "illegal private persons.”
The tehsildar had said in his complaint that the government land in 34 villages of Bikaner, to be used for expanding the Army's firing range in the area, was "grabbed" by the land mafia with the help of "forged and fabricated documents", in connivance with government officials.
The ED suspects that a huge amount of money was laundered in the case as people bought land at cheap rates through forged documents.
The state government had, while cancelling the land transfers, said those were not issued by the Commissioner, Colonisation, Bikaner.
Vadra had earlier denied any wrongdoing in connection with the land deal and the Congress had claimed that the case was a result of "sheer political vendetta.”
(With inputs from PTI, IANS and ANI)
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