NEW DELHI : The government and the ruling BJP today sought to make it clear that it is not working with a vindictive mindset against Robert Vadra and maintained that the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi should be ready to face the law like any common citizen on the Bikaner land purchase controversy.
“If Robert Vadra is listening, I would like to tell him, had a common man violated the law, he would have faced the law. So why should the same yardstick not apply toVadra also,” BJP MP from Bikaner and Union Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghawal told Times Now news channel. He said prima facie, there was “violation” of Land Ceiling Act as the prime land “where solar energy projects could be set up was purchased and then sold out”. The remarks from the Union Minister come close on the heels of media reports that the Rajasthan High Court has rejected plea of a firm related to the case and directed the Enforcement Directorate to continue its probe into the land deal. The plea was made against summons by the ED. BJP sources said the officials and those associated with Skylight Hospital, a firm linked to Robert Vadra, would be also questioned by the ED. Mr Meghawal said, “I do not think they will get any relief as there was clear case of violation of the existing laws”. The Union MoS also made a veiled attack on the erstwhile Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan, saying that they had “ignored” certain clause vis-a-vis Land Ceiling Act, when the firm and individuals close to Vadra had purchased the land. “Unhone andkehi ki kyon ki woh bade admi hain (They ignored the law, because Vadra is a big man),” Mr Meghawal alleged. “The land purchased should have been used for setting up of solar energy projects and this was not done,” he said. The controversial land deal and subsequent probe are related to the alleged purchase of 275 bigha land allegedly by the company in Kolayat area of the border town of Bikaner. The Enforcement Directorate had registered a criminal case of money laundering in this case last year, taking cognisance of FIRs filed by the state police after the local Tehsildar had made a complaint. ED had conducted similar searches in the case in Delhi last year. Rajasthan government has also cancelled the mutation (transfer of land) of land, after the land department claimed to have found that the allotments were made in the names of “illegal private persons”. (AGENCIES)
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