The Enforcement Directorate yesterday attached land belonging to Jaiprakash Bagarwa, who is believed to be an aide of Robert Vadra. According to reports, the central probe agency had yesterday seized a parcel of land measuring 18 beegha which were in the name of Jaiprakash’s wife Raju Devi.
#LandScam | ED attaches more land of Robert Vadra’s alleged aide in Bikaner pic.twitter.com/ii6f4znuw4
— EconomicTimes (@EconomicTimes) April 26, 2018
Earlier on April 19, ED had reportedly attached another property belonging to Jaiprakash. The attachments have been done in connection with the Bikaner Land Scam case. In the Bikaner land scam, some fraudulent individuals, including real estate developers, in collusion with state government officials had got land allotted in the names of non-existent individuals. The land was actually meant for the people displaced for the construction of the Mahajan Field Firing Range. A total of 1422 beegha land has been reportedly grabbed in this manner.
Jaiprakash Bagarwa and another person Ashok Kumar have been arrested by ED in December 2017 in the same case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. In February 2018, ED had reportedly conducted raids in the Faridabad premises of Congress leader Mahesh Nagar in connection with the land scam. Mahesh Nagar was reportedly the official representative of Skylight Hospitality, a real estate firm Robert Vadra is associated with. Skylight Hospitality is believed to have purchased 275 beegha land in Bikaner’s Kolayat area. The ED had lodged a criminal complaint against the firm after taking into account the FIR lodged by Rajasthan Government after the local tehsil complained of forgery in the said purchase.
Skylight Hospitality has also been allegedly involved in similar transactions in Haryana and a probe was earlier recommended by the Justice SN Dhingra commission against Bhupinder Singh Hooda alleging that Hooda and some of his government officials have been involved in suspicious land deals with Skylight Hospitality. Skylight Hospitality is also under Income Tax scanner for alleged irregularities in financial transactions in their land deals in Rajasthan and Haryana.
Robert Vadra is reportedly a partner in Skylight Hospitality. The firm has been under the lens for several tax irregularities and land scam complaints. Priyanka Vadra, Robert Vadra’s wife and daughter of Congress ex-President Sonia Gandhi has also been under the scanner for shady land deals in Haryana under the Congress rule.
