Robert Vadra reaches Jaipur for ED questioning in land scam case

JAIPUR: Congress President Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra arrived here on Monday for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an alleged land scam case involving 275 acres of land in the Kolayat sub-division of Bikaner district. Vadra was accompanied by his mother Maureen. He will be questioned by the ED on Tuesday. According to sources, he will have to answer 55 questions being drafted by the ED. Priyanka Gandhi, Vadra's wife and Congress General Secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh East, is also expected to reach the Pink City and will accompany her husband to the ED office on Tuesday, Congress sources said. This will be the fourth time that Vadra appears before the agency. On last three occasions he appeared before the ED in Delhi in connection with a money laundering probe against him for his alleged role in procuring assets abroad in an alleged illegal manner. The Tuesday's appearance before the ED in Jaipur is directed by the Rajasthan High Court which asked Vadra and his mother to cooperate with the agency after they approached it seeking directions that no coercive action is taken against them by the agency. Officials said the investigating officer (IO) of the case will record the statement of Vadra and his mother under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).     The agency has grilled Vadra for about 24 hours over three sessions last week in the national capital. In the Bikaner case, the agency had summoned Vadra thrice but he failed to appear and later approached the court. The ED had registered a criminal case in connection with the deal in 2015, taking cognisance of a clutch of FIRs and chargesheets filed by the Rajasthan police after the tehsildar of Bikaner complained about alleged forgery in the allotment of land in the area, considered sensitive due to its proximity to the Indo-Pak border. The ED, it is understood, wants to question Vadra about the operations of a firm -- Ms Skylight Hospitality Private Limited -- allegedly linked to him, which had purchased land in the area. It also wants to confront Vadra with the statements of those said to be linked to him. The agency was also probing the role of a big steel firm that gave loans to a company that bought the land from firms linked to Vadra at a very inflated price, official sources said. The agency, in the past, had also raided the premises of people linked to Vadra, like Mahesh Nagar and a few others. In December 2017, the ED had arrested Ashok Kumar, a close associate of Nagar, and another person, Jaiprakash Bagarwa. Nagar is said to be associated with Ms Skylight Hospitality Private Limited, the firm with alleged links to Vadra.The ED had searched the premises of both Kumar and Nagar in April 2017. Nagar was the "authorised representative" in four cases of land purchase in Bikaner. Kumar, the agency alleged, had purchased land in the same area, using the "power of attorney" of others. (With inputs from agencies)