Robert Vadra, mother Maureen in Jaipur to appear before ED in Bikaner land scam case

Robert Vadra, son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi reached here on Monday along with his mother Maureen Vadra to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case related to a land scam in Bikaner, the state's border town.

On January 22, the Rajasthan High Court's Jodhpur bench had directed Vadra, his mother Maureen, and his partners in Skyline Hospitality to appear before the ED on February 12 to respond to the allegations of money laundering involving his firm.

According to sources, they are likely to appear before the central probe agency at about 10 am on Tuesday at its zonal office on Bhiwani Singh Road.

Last November, the ED had for the third time issued summons to Vadra and his mother, a partner in the firm, but none of them appeared. Instead, they moved the High Court seeking a 'no coercive action' order and stay of their arrest.

A money laundering case was registered by the ED in September 2015, claiming that Skylight Hospitality had acquired land in Kolayat village of Bikaner, which was meant for the rehabilitation of the poor villagers.

It was alleged that Vadra bought 69.55 hectares of land at a cheaper rate and then sold the land to Allegheny Finlease for Rs 5.15 crore through illegal transactions.

It is worth mentioning that in Bikaner land scam fraudsters in collusion with the state government officials got allotted land in the name of fictitious individuals, though the land was actually meant for the people who were displaced due to the creation of Mahajan Field Firing range.

The fraudsters created forged allotment letters purportedly issued by the Colonisation Department of the state government and 1,422 'bighas' of land was recorded in revenue record in the name of fictitious allottees without due verification of the allotment letters from the concerned department.