Trouble mounts for Vadra in land deal
jaipur — The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is said to have made a tight case of money laundering against Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi who is being probed in a land deal in Bikaner in Rajasthan.
According to the ED, which is investigating a web of controversial land transactions in Bikaner allegedly involving Vadra’s company Skylight Hospitality LLP, is believed to have collected documents pertaining to the purchase and sale of land in the border town.
ED officials claim that Vadra had started creating a land bank near power sub-stations in Bikaner from June 2009, almost a year before the then Congressled UPA government announced the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (NSM) Policy under which huge subsidies (nearly 40 per cent) were offered for setting up grid-tied solar power plants.
After the Centre’s announcement, Vadra’s land value located near power sub-stations skyrocketed. And the land bought by the state government had practically no takers because most of it was not close enough for easy grid connections.
An ED official said Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality bought this plot in Kolayat in March 2010. And two years later, in May 2012, it sold off 29.36 hectares of land in Kolayat for nearly Rs20 million to a French joint venture without adding any value to it.
He said the ED has zeroed on Mahesh Nagar, an authorised representative of Skylight Hospitality owned by Vadra and his 75-yearold mother Maureen Vadra.
Nagar is the person who links Vadra’s company with the person named Ashok Kumar who was named in the chargesheet filed by the Rajasthan Police in the case. —