Bikaner land grab case: ED searches premises of Delhi firm

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted search operations at the premises of a Delhi-based firm in connection with a money laundering case arising out of a land grab case in Bikaner involving a company allegedly linked to Robert Vadra.
Agency sleuths searched the premises of the firm in south Delhi after its probe found that it was "involved" in purchasing land from companies, who had initially procured land from the border town of Rajasthan.
"It is suspected that the firm acted as a dummy or shell company. Some documents and computer peripherals have been seized. The premises, which were brought under the search operation, belongs to a chartered accountancy firm," sources said.

ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in this case in September taking cognisance of some state police FIRs, even as it recorded media reports that had referred to a firm linked to Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which had purchased some of these lands.
The agency had not taken the name of Vadra or any company linked to him in its FIR but it had named some state government officials and some of the "land mafia".
"He (Vadra) has done no wrong. No case is pending against him. This is sheer political vendetta," Congress General Secretary and spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed had told reporters after the ED filed its case few months back.

Rajasthan government had in January this year 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 central probe agency picked up the case based on 18 FIRs filed by the state police in August last year after the local tehsildar had made a complaint.
He 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.

Sources said the agency suspected that huge amounts of money was laundered in this case by people buying land at cheap rates through forged documents.
The state government, while cancelling the mutations, had said that these were not issued by the Commissioner, Colonisation, Bikaner.
The state police has also filed charge sheets in the 18 cases in a court in Kolayat in the middle of this year.