Enforcement Directorate summons Robert Vadra in land deal case

Enforcement Directorate has summoned Robert Vadra in the land deal case.

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Robert Vadra in the Bikaner land deal case on Friday. 

The case pertains to a land in Kolayat area of Rajasthan's Bikaner district which was meant to be alloted to those displaced due to the army's Mahajan field firing range. The ED had registered a criminal case under the PMLA in the matter in 2015 taking cognisance of FIRs filed by the state police after the local Tehsildar had complained of alleged forgery.

Vadra has been denying any wrongdoing even as the Congress had called the action "sheer political vendetta".

The Rajasthan government had in January 2015 cancelled the mutation (transfer of land) of 374.44 hectares of land, after the land department claimed to have found that the allotments were made in the names of "illegal private persons".

The Tehsildar had said in the complaint that the government land in 34 villages of Bikaner, to be used for expanding the Army's firing range in the area, was "grabbed" by the land mafia by preparing "forged and fabricated documents" in connivance with government officials.

ED suspects that huge money was laundered in this case by people buying land at cheap rates through forged documents.

The state government had, while cancelling the mutations, said these were not issued by the Commissioner, Colonisation, Bikaner.

The state police had also filed charge sheets in the 18 cases in a court in Kolayat.