Bikaner land deal case: Robert Vadra's company gets ED notice

New Delhi, June 22: Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, Robert Vadra could be in deep trouble soon as Enforcement Directorate has issued notice to his company.

Reportedly, ED sent notice to his firm Skylight Hospitality in connection with alleged money laundering in a land deal in Bikaner district, Rajashthan.

Sources said that notice was issued to the company under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The firm has also been asked to submit certain financial statements and other documents to the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case, the sources said.

The Enforcement Directorate had conducted extensive searches in this case in Rajasthan and other places last month and had claimed to have seized a number of documents.

The probe is related to the purchase of 275 bigha land allegedly by the company in the Kolayat area of the border town of Bikaner.

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 after the local tehsildar had made a complaint.

The Enforcement Directorate has not mentioned the name of Vadra or any company linked to him in the FIR but it named some state government officials and some of the "land mafia".

While filing the case, it had also taken cognizance of reports that had referred to a firm allegedly linked to Vadra which had purchased some of these Bikaner located lands. Vadra has denied any wrongdoing even as Congress party called the action "sheer political vendetta".

The agency had conducted similar searches in the case in Delhi last year.

Last year, BJP govt had cancelled the mutation

Rajasthan government had in January last year cancelled the mutation (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 the 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 by preparing "forged and fabricated documents" in connivance with government officials.

The Enforcement Directorate suspects that huge amounts of money was laundered in this case by people buying land at cheap rates through forged documents.

The state government had, while cancelling the mutations, said these were not issued by the Commissioner, Colonisation, Bikaner. The state police had also filed chargesheets in the 18 cases in a court in Kolayat last year.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)