Raids properties of ‘agent’ in Bikaner land deals; Vendetta, cries a furious Cong
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday raided multiple locations in Faridabad in connection with the Bikaner land scam case. The raids at multiple locations included the premises of Congress MLA Lalit Nagar's brother Mahesh Nagar and his driver Ashok Kumar.
They added that the duo was believed to be linked to Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, whose role in the scam is being probed.
The investigation relates to the purchase of 275 bighas of land in the Kolayat area of Bikaner by Skylight Hospitality, the company which is linked to all the other companies owned by Vadra, and are currently under the ED's scanner.
Reacting to the ED raid, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: "Today's raid has nothing to do with Vadra. For the past four years, the Rajasthan and Haryana governments have been trying to find irregularities and they have found nothing."
Surjewala added that officials of Vadra's companies had visited the ED numerous times and supplied them with whatever documents required. "So far they have not been able to find anything against Vadra or his company or associates. As part of a vendetta and witch-hunt, the BJP government proceeded to refer the matter to the ED," he claimed.
However, senior ED officials involved in the probe say Vadra's companies used to collect information from then state government officials about upcoming projects on low cost-land. They added that through this information, they used to buy the land, before the public announcement of these projects, at a very low price. Later, when the projects would be announced, they would sell the land at huge profit.
In all this, sources reveal, Mahesh Nagar was alleged to be the go-between and Vadra's companies were said to have given him the power of attorney for various land deals.
ED sources also said that between June 2009 and June 2010, 60 land deals were said to have been struck in Kolayat, all through Mahesh Nagar. Nagar had allegedly struck deals for Vadra's companies, which included Blue Breeze, Skylight Hospitality, North India IT Parks and Real Earth.
On March 31 this year, the ED issued a Provisional Attachment Order under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, (PMLA) attaching assets worth Rs 1.18 crore in connection with a land scam in Kolayat town in Rajasthan's Bikaner district.
These assets belonged to Jai Prakash Bagarwa and Rajasthan government officials, identified as Uma Charan Sharma, Fakir Mohammad and Mahaveer Swami, all of whom were alleged to have colluded with Vadra's companies. From the I-T department, a notice had also been sent to Vadra's company Skylight Hospitality seeking details of its financial and land deals.
Last year, the ED had also issued notices to a firm said to be linked to Vadra. However, the FIR did not mention the name of Vadra or any company linked to him under the PMLA. In the FIR, ED has named "some Rajasthan government officials" and the "land mafia."
In December last year, the Congress had termed the ED probe into Vadra's controversial land deals as a "vendetta and witch-hunt." Surjewala had then said that officials of Skylight Hospitality have supplied the ED with whatever documents that were required. He added that nothing had been found against Vadra.
MODUS OPERANDI
- The companies allegedly had inside information about upcoming projects in low-cost barren land.
- By using this information, they used to buy land at very low costs and before the public announcement of the projects were made.
- Later, with the announcement of the project, they used to sell these land, making huge profits. In all deals, Mahesh Nagar was the key agent.
- In 2009, before a solar power project was announced in Kolayat, Sky Light Realty started buying wasteland near the sub-stations.
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