Udaipur administration takes possession of 5-star hotel Laxmi Vilas

Jaipur: The Udaipur administration has taken possession of the famous 5-star hotel of Lake City Udaipur. A notice board was put up outside the hotel by the administration, citing court orders authorizing the district collector to take possession of the hotel. A team of over 25 people visit each and every room in the hotel to make an inventory of the things.

The CBI court had recently appointed Udaipur district collector Chetanram Deoda as the receiver. A team led by the district collector took possession of the hotel on Wednesday and put up a notice board outside the hotel.

The court had said that the ‘dis-investment’ of the hotel was wrong and it had been done on the basis of a criminal conspiracy. The ‘dis-investment’ happened for Rs 7.50 crore, while the hotel’s worth over Rs 250 crore. The CBI had initiated an investigation in 2014 and several prominent people including disinvestment minister Arun Shourie were named in the FIR.

When the NDA government came to power, the CBI was planning to submit a closure report in April, 2019; however, the court of special CBI judge Pooran Kumar Sharma ordered a re-investigation into the case. On Wednesday, the court ordered the collector to take possession of the hotel.