Bikaner: Tehsildar quizzed in Robert Vadra land deal case
Tehsildar Gajendra Nain was quizzed at the CBI’s headquarters in New Delhi for nearly six hours, according to preliminary reports.
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Jaipur: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recorded the statement of a revenue officer who was deputed in Kolayat area of Bikaner in Rajasthan when the controversial land deals allegedly involving a company owned by Robert Vadra, son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were executed.
Tehsildar Gajendra Nain was quizzed at the CBI’s headquarters in New Delhi for nearly six hours, according to preliminary reports.
Gajendra Nain had registered 18 FIRs in connection with the controversial land deals. These FIRs are being investigated by the CBI. Nain had registered the cases between March 2014 and October 2016 with Kolayat polices station in Bikaner. Nain is currently posted as tehsildar of Srikaranpur.
Many revenue officers have been arrested in connection with the alleged scam. They include six patwaris, five girdawars and one nayab tehsildar.
The CBI took up the case for investigation in August last year. The Rajasthan government had sent a recommendation for a probe in the matter following which DoPT issued a notification.
Several people were arrested by local police in connection with the alleged fraud in grabbing land. The Enforcement Directorate(ED) is also investigating the financial aspects of the cases and had conducted raids in this regard after registering a case of money laundering.
Most of these land deals took place in Kolayat tehsil in Bikaner between 2009 and 2011. The tehsildar at Kolayat had said in the complaint that the government land in 34 villages of Bikaner district meant to be used for expanding army’s firing range in the area was “grabbed” by the land mafia through “forged and fabricated documents” in connivance with some government officials.
The state government, after finding irregularities in the land deals, had cancelled mutations (transfer of land) of nearly 374.44 hectares of land in Bikaner district. The state revenue department had found that the allotments were made in the names of “fake private persons”.
The 18 cases have been registered under sections 420, 461, 468 and 471 of IPC on the request of the Rajasthan Government, a CBI spokesperson said.