Robert Vadra land deal case: CBI summons Bikaner administration officers for questioning

Jaipur: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has stepped up its investigation into the 18 FIRs registered in connection with dubious land deals in Bikaner in 2006-07. Some of these deals are allegedly linked to a company owned by Robert Vadra.

The CBI has summoned eight officials and employees of Bikaner district administration. These officers were posted in of Kolayat area during the time the deals took place. Those summoned include a tehsildar and seven clerks who handled land deal documents. Six of those who were summoned have retired from service.

The officers and employees have been informed of the CBI summons by the district collector.

“The CBI has asked these people to be present for questioning at CBI headquarters in Delhi on April 11,” said a senior Bikaner district administration officer.

Many revenue officers have already 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 following a Rajasthan government’s recommendation for a probe in the matter.

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.