After registering a case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and AAP minister Satyendra Jain, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is now going to probe the land scam involving Robert Vadra, the son-in law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The CBI registered 18 FIRs on Wednesday after the BJP-led Rajasthan government asked for a probe into alleged land scams in Bikaner.
Separate FIRs were registered under several sections of IPC regarding a series of transactions of land allotted in lieu of Mahajan Firing range in Bikaner, of which Vadra’s companies also made a few purchases and later sold them at a hefty profit. The case emerged in 2014 when the state cancelled 18 mutations, that is, transfer of ownership in Bikaner, after finding them to be illegal.
The land was illegally allotted or possessed in 2006-07 by some villagers who were “wrongfully” shown as farmers displaced by Mahajan Field Firing Range of the army.
While those who had actually lost the land were rehabilitated in the 90s, it was alleged that several parties, including Vadra’s company, had purchased large amounts of land.
The CBI investigations are likely to land a few influential people from the region, including some Congress leaders, in trouble. Vadra came into the picture at a later stage and most of the land he purchased in the name of a few companies had already exchanged hands a few times.
At one point, he was the director of more than one company whose net land holding in that area exceeded land ceiling by a small margin, but he once clarified that the excess land was surrendered.
However, he faced the allegation of buying land on being sounded by Congress governments at the center and the state about proposed setting up of solar parks – which got the rock bottom land prices to skyrocket at once. Yet, the profit he made was estimated to be only a few crores – a meager amount compared to what his land deals in Gurugram are alleged to have yielded.
CBI INVESTIGATIONS TO BRING TROUBLE
Some of the lands he sold were bought by the state’s Congress leaders. The state government, according to home minister Gulab Chand Kataria, found it difficult to investigate the web of transactions and alleged violations. There were also allegations that Vadra had bought a lot more than what has been reported, but these claims remain unsubstantiated. This shows that either the Vasundhara Raje government in the state was reluctant to nail Vadra or it did not find enough substance to go after him and therefore decided to send the cases to the CBI. There have been a few arrests in the past, and CBI investigations are expected to bring trouble for many more.
This is why, Vadra may be interrogated by CBI and end up facing charges of wrongdoings such as buying from those who had bought it fraudulently or exceeding land ceiling at one point.
Vadra had earlier claimed that he was innocent and was being targeted. He took to Facebook to vent his ire and wrote, “Another attempt of malicious prosecution exposed. First, Rajasthan police filed a FIR on 26 August 2014. In 3 years, they filed the chargesheets, summoned documents, as also company officials, yet found not an iota of evidence. Neither the FIR nor the chargesheets accuse the companies associated with me in any manner whatsoever.”
