CBI to investigate Bikaner’s controversial land deals involving Robert Vadra
DoPT issues notification.
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Jaipur: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take up the cases related to controversial land deals allegedly executed by a company owned by Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.
The department of personnel and training (DoPT) has issued a notification in this regard after the agency accepted the Rajasthan government’s recommendation to probe these cases.
The Rajasthan police had lodged 16 FIRs in this connection at Bikaner’s Gajner police station and two FIRs at Kolayat police station.
Earlier this month, all the 18 FIRs were sent to Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to issue notification for CBI probe in case the state’s recommendation is accepted. Four of the 18 cases involved a company Skylight that is allegedly owned by Vadra.
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. “The said cases are related to alleged fraudulent and fictitious claims/allotments in lieu of land acquired for Mahajan Field Firing Range, Bikaner used by the Indian Army,” added the spokesperson.
