On Tuesday, September 26, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at multiple locations in Rajasthan in connection with a money laundering investigation. The locations searched by the ED in connection with the alleged mid-day meal scam included the residence of the state’s higher education minister, Rajendra Singh Yadav.
According to the reports, the raids were carried out at roughly ten locations in Kotputli, Jaipur, Behror, and Viratnagar associated with the minister, his colleagues, and their businesses. Rajendra Yadav, Minister of State for Home, is close to CM Ashok Gehlot, and the current raid comes only days after an Income Tax raid.
#WATCH | Enforcement Directorate is conducting raids at various locations including Jaipur and Kotputli of Rajasthan Minister Rajendra Yadav in alleged mid-day meal scam, as per sources.
— ANI (@ANI) September 26, 2023
(Visuals from Kotputli) pic.twitter.com/Ue5Tj8kiRz
The Income Tax Department on September 7, last yea,r had found cash and jewelry from the ancestral house and factory of Rajendra Yadav in Kichha. Around 53 properties linked to Rajendra Yadav and his family, including his son Madhur Yadav were investigated by the IT department in Jaipur, Kotputli, Gurgaon, and Uttarakhand.
On Tuesday, September 26, the ED officials confirmed that the raids were linked to the mid-day meal scam. However, other details in connection with the raid were not made public.
It has been reported that a company that Yadav founded delivered low-quality products to schools in 2018.
Yadav assured that his family was safe following the income tax raid last year. “We are clean. Let them investigate. If there is any political malice in the income tax action, that too will come to light. It is wrong to link names with political funding. Our work is packaging. We have no connection with mid-day meals. We make the packets and packaging the same. We are not responsible for what anyone fills in them,” he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, for security, a significant number of police officers have been stationed around Rajendra Yadav’s home and enterprises. It is expected that details regarding the raids will be published after the searches on the minister’s firms are completed.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot recently stated that the BJP is employing federal agencies to intimidate opposition leaders ahead of the state’s elections later this year. On the other hand, the BJP has slammed the Congress government in the state over corruption, citing the ‘Red Diary,’ which reportedly has details of stated corruption and transactions carried out by the Gehlot administration.
