CBI probe likely into 18 ‘illegal’ land deals
The Rajasthan government has recommended a CBI inquiry into 18 cases of land deals in Bikaner, including four involving businessman Robert Vadra-promoted Skylight Hospitality, home minister Gulab Chand Kataria said on Tuesday.
The state decided to send the cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation on August 17, he said. Vadra is the son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The Rajasthan Police last year cleared Vadra of any wrongdoing, saying he was a bona fide purchaser who was “cheated” and “certainly a victim of fraud”.
“We decided to refer the 18 FIRs, four related to Vadra’s company, to the CBI because these pieces of land were allotted on fake documents and sold multiple times. The central agency will unravel the conspiracy,” Kataria said.
The cases revolve around 1,400 bighas allotted in lieu of the land acquired for a firing range. A probe found land was allotted to people who had not been displaced.
Around 275 bighas were bought by Skylight Hospitality in 2010 and sold by it in 2012.
“When the issue was probed, it was found that in connivance of administrative officers the land was fraudulently allotted and huge profit was earned by selling it,” Kataria said.
Eighteen FIRs were lodged as it was not clear whom the land was allotted to. The allotments were not matching land records, he said.
Charge sheet was filed in all 18 cases, but the four related to Vadra needed to be probed further, a police official told Hindustan Times on Tuesday.
“We have no issues with the CBI probe but the government should also reveal the findings of the committee constituted to probe the issue,” state Congress chief Sachin Pilot said, adding the BJP was known to misuse government agencies in the run-up to the polls.
The desert state is due for assembly election next year.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday asked the Centre, Facebook, Google and Yahoo to respond to a plea seeking removal of links to the Blue Whale challenge from the internet.
The Blue Whale challenge, which has claimed many lives in India and abroad, is a game in which a player is given certain tasks to complete in 50 days. The final task is to commit suicide.
The high court directed Google, Yahoo and Facebook to submit a status report with regard to steps taken in pursuance to Centre’s direction to ban the game.
Earlier this month, the government had directed Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to immediately remove the links of the game.
The Central Board of Secondary Education too issued a circular, asking schools to install effective firewalls, filtering and monitoring software mechanisms in all the computers.
Concerned over suicide by children due to Blue Whale challenge, UP DGP Sulkhan Singh on Tuesday banned the game in the state. Singh said the ministry of electronics and information technology and ministry of home affairs had directed the state governments to impose a blanket ban on the game.
THE HC ALSO ASKED THE INTERNET GIANTS TO SUBMIT A STATUS REPORT ON STEPS TAKEN IN PURSUANCE TO CENTRE’S ORDER TO BAN THE GAME