ED to issue fresh summons to Vadra’s company

A lawyer today put in an appearance before the ED in response to a notice sent in the Bikaner land deal case to a company linked to Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, but it was dismissed by the probe agency as "unauthorised".    

 

Official sources said the Enforcement Directorate(ED) will now issue fresh summons to the company.      A lawyer appeared at the ED headquarters and claimed to be representing the firm -- Skylight Hospitality -- which had been served a notice recently for allegedly violating provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).   

 

However, he was neither carrying any relevant papers nor an authorisation letter from the company about him being their representative prompting the investigating officer of the ED to reject his appearance as "unauthorised", the sources said.

 

The sources said that a fresh notice will now be issued to the firm in connection with alleged money laundering in a land deal in Rajasthan.   

 

The company had been asked by the ED to submit certain financial statements and other documents a few days back.    

 

The notice was sent after the ED had conducted extensive searches in this case in Bikaner district and other places last month and had claimed to have seized some documents.   

 

The agency is expected to issue summons to some other people and entities involved in the case shortly, the sources said.   

 

The probe is related to the purchase of 275 bigha land allegedly by the company in the Kolayat area of the border town of Bikaner.   

 

The central probe agency had registered a criminal case of money laundering in this case last year by FIRs filed by the state police after the local tehsildar had made a complaint.   

 

The ED has not mentioned the name of Vadra or any company linked to him in the FIR, but it named some state government officials and some of the "land mafia".    

 

While filing the case, it had also taken cognisance of reports that had referred to a firm allegedly linked to Vadra which had purchased some of these Bikaner located lands.    

 

Vadra has denied any wrongdoing even as Congress party called the action "sheer political endetta". The agency had conducted similar searches in the case in Delhi last year.

Rajasthan government had in January last 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 he names of "illegal private persons".