The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
ED to issue fresh summons to ‘Vadra-linked’ firm
BIKANER LAND CASE
THE ENFORCEMENT Directorate (ED) will issue fresh summons to Skylight Hospitality, a firm allegedly linked to Robert Vadra, in connection with its probe into the Bikaner land scam case. The agency is doing so as the company attempted to represent itself through a lawyer in answer to an earlier summon but the ED termed the representation “unauthorised”.
A lawyer representing the company appeared before the ED in response to a notice sent in the case. However, he was neither carrying relevant papers nor an authorisation letter from the company. This prompted the investigating officer to reject his appearance as “unauthorised”, sources said.
Sources said a fresh notice will now be issued to the firm in connection with alleged money laundering in the land deal. A few days back, the ED had asked the company to submit financial statements and other documents.
The notice was sent after the ED conducted searches in Bikaner district and other places last month and had claimed to have seized a number of documents.
The agency is expected to issue summons to a number of other people and entities involved in the case in the near future, the sources said. The probe pertains to alleged purchase of 275 bigha land by the company in the Kolayat area of Bikaner.
The ED had registered a criminal case of money laundering last year on the basis of FIRS filed by state police after the local tehsildar lodged a complaint.
The ED 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 “land mafia”.
While filing the case, it had also taken cognizance of reports that had referred to a firm allegedly linked to Vadra which purchased some of these plots.
Vadra has denied any wrongdoing and Congress party has called the action “sheer political vendetta”.
The agency had conducted similar searches in the case in Delhi last year.
The Rajasthan government had, in January last year, cancelled the mutation (transfer of land) of 374.44 hectares, after the land department claimed to have found that allotments were made in the names of “illegal private persons”.