Two held in land grab case involving firm linked to Vadra

Two men, including a close aide of an authorised representative of a company linked to former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, have been arrested in connection with a land grab case in Rajasthan's Bikaner.

Jaiprakash Bagarwa and Ashok Kumar, a close associate of an authorised representative of Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, Mahesh Nagar, have been arrested, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) stated.

The ED registered a money laundering case in connection with the land grab case based on 18 FIRs filed by the Rajasthan Police in August 2016 after the tehsildar filed a complaint.

The ED suspected money laundering in connection with the case of transfer of government land in 34 villages, to expand the army's firing range, to private persons using "forged and fabricated documents".

Kumar was used as "conduit" by Nagar, who knew the "fraudulent nature" of the deal.

"M/s Skylight Hospitality Pvt. Ltd (linked to Vadra) had purchased 69.55-hectare land in Rs 72 lakh, sold it to M/s Allegheny Finlease Pvt Ltd for Rs 5.15 crore and earned a huge profit of Rs 4.43 crore. M/s Allegheny Finlease Pvt Ltd as a company is not involved in any real business activity and many of its shareholders were found to be dummy/non-existent during the investigation," the ED said.

Earlier, the ED had issued a Provisional Attachment order under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, attaching movable and immovable properties worth Rs 1.18 crore.