The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday issued a fresh notice to a firm linked to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in connection with a land scam in Bikaner district of Rajasthan.
Agency sources said the notice was issued to Skylight Hospitality asking it to explain the controversial land deals in Rajasthan and provide certain financial statements to the investigating officer of the case.
The firm has been given two weeks time to furnish financial statements and other documents related to the controversial land deals to the IO of the case.
“The notice was issued under the provisions of Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA). The company is accused of violating several provisions of PMlA,” an official said.
The fresh notice was issued after a lawyer representing Skylight Hospitality appeared before it on June 24. The agency dismissed his appearance as “unauthorized” after finding that the lawyer was not carrying any authorization letter from the firm about him being the company’s representative.
The Central probe agency had registered a criminal case of money laundering in this case last year on the basis of FIRs filed by the State police following a complaint from the local tehsildar. Some state government officials, middlemen and private
entities, including Skylight Hospitality, a firm owned by Vadra, were named in the case.
In May, the agency had carried out searches at seven locations in Bikaner. last year, it had also conducted raids in the national capital. The private firms are accused of conniving with a section of state revenue department officials to grab 360 hectares of government land in Bikaner’s Kolayat region between 2007 and 2010. The land is alleged to have been fraudulently allocated to non-existent “poor villagers” under the Rajasthan government’s rehabilitation scheme and was later bought by the private firms, including Skylight at throwaway prices.
“Skylight Hospitality is accused of purchasing the land from fake sellers,” another ED official said.
In January last year the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP Government in Rajasthan had registered 18 FIRs after the land department pointed out irregularities.
The ED took over the case following the complaint from the revenue official in Bikaner.
The agency, however, is yet to name Vadra in a criminal case registered under the Prevention of Money laundering Act.
Vadra’s another land deal with real estate firm DlF in Haryana is under scanner after the BJP-led State Government ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) probe last year.
In this case, the CBI had registered an FIR for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy against unknown public servants of the Haryana government and unknown private persons.
The Congress and the Gandhis have described the probe against Vadra as “sheer political vendetta” by the Centre.