Bikaner land case: Vadra, mother appear before ED
JAIPUR: Robert Vadra along with his mother Maureen reached the zonal office of Enforcement Directorate(ed) on Tuesday morning i n Jaipur around 10:30am for a questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged land scam case involving 275 acres of land in the Kolayat sub-division of Bikaner district.
Vadra’s wife and general secretary of AICC, Priyanka Gandhi dropped them at the zonal office.
Robert Vadra and his mother Maureen Vadra are partners in the company.
This is the first appearance of Robert Vadra in the zonal office of ED. In the Bikaner case, the agency had summoned Vadra thrice but he failed to appear.
The Rajasthan High Court on January 21 directed partners of Sky Light Hospitality Company to appear before Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 12 for questioning in the Bikaner land case. The HC, however, restrained the ED from arresting the partners. The ED is conducting initial inquiry into a money laundering case in the Bikaner land case. In the investigation so far, the role of Sky Light Company has surfaced.
One of the officials of ED who didn’t want to be named said the central agency is trying to estab- lish a link between Mahesh Nagar, one of the co-accused in the case, and Vadra in purchase and sale of land. “We are trying to find out whether Vadra knew the fact that the land his company purchased was bought on forged documents? We are also trying to know if Mahesh Nagar informed him before purchasing the land? Did he know the purpose of purchasing the land? How was the land sold at extremely high price? Etc,” said the ED official.
The official added that the biggest challenge in front of ED is that Nagar is absconding. The exact role of the suspects could be identified only after his arrest. Robert Vadra’s Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited sold 69.55 hectares in two deals to Delhibased agency identified as Allegeny Finlease Pvt Ltd in January 2012 for ~5.15 crore which was seven times the prevailing market rate two years ago.
In January 2010, Sky Light Hospitality had purchased the land in two deals for a total of ~72 lakh. While Mahesh Nagar, the representative of several companies linked to Vadra, purchased and sold the land on behalf of Sky Light Hospitality.
His helper Ashok Kumar and Bikaner-based real estate agent Onkar Mal Yadav sold the two pieces of land as power of attorney for the local landowners to Mahesh Nagar in 2010. On December 21, 2017 Jaiprakash Bagarwa who is alleged to have mafia links and Ashok Kumar were arrested. At the time of arrest, ED officials in their press statement described them as the main fraudsters.