Jaipur, Feb. 13 (IANS): Businessman Robert Vadra deposed before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here for the second consecutive day on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering case involving Bikaner land deal cases.
He appeared at the ED office around 10:40 am and was interrogated until around 8:30 pm, after which he left for Delhi.
A total of four ED officials grilled Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law, said an agency official.
However, his mother Maureen, who was interrogated on Tuesday, was not questioned on Wednesday. She was interrogated for nearly two hours and had to face around 10 questions.
They were questioned for over eight hours on Tuesday under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
According to an ED source, on Tuesday, Vadra was given a set of questions about how he knew Mahesh Nagar, an authorised representative of Skylight Hospitality LLP, owned by Robert Vadra and his 75-year-old mother.
Nagar is the person who links Vadra’s company with Ashok Kumar, who was named in the chargesheet filed by the Rajasthan Police in the case.
In December 2017, the ED had arrested Ashok Kumar, a close associate of Nagar, and another person, Jaiprakash Bagarwa. The ED had searched the premises of both Kumar and Nagar in April 2017.
According to ED officials, Nagar was the authorised representative in four cases of land purchase in Bikaner.
Kumar, the agency alleged, had purchased land in the same area, using the “power of attorney” of others.
The source disclosed that Vadra was also asked about the business and transactions of his company. He was also questioned about how much lands he bought, and whether he took loans to buy the land in Bikaner.
The ED officials also asked Vadra if he knew about the involvement of Kumar in the case and when Nagar informed him about the forgery of documents to buy those lands.
The ED has been probing the alleged irregularities in the purchase of land in Kolayat area of the border town of Bikaner in Rajasthan, which was meant for those displaced due to Army’s field firing range.
According to the ED officials, Skylight Hospitality had purchased 69.55 hectares of land for INR 72 lakh and then sold it to Allegeny Finlease for INR 5.15 crore, thus making a profit of INR 4.43 crore.
