Vasundhara Raje puts Robert Vadra's land deals in Rajasthan under scanner

By Akshay Deshmane

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government has sought information on the real estate dealings of Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, with the Rajasthan Revenue Board seeking details of lands purchased or sold by Vadra.

The communication, which was sent a few days ago, was prompted by a question in the state assembly, government officials said.

The new BJP government, headed by Vasundhara Raje, had said in December that it planned to investigate Vadra’s land purchases because of allegations that he had misused the previous Congress-led government’s policy to provide land at subsidised rates for solar parks.

Further, claims that Vadra violated the land ceiling Act would also be probed, the state’s energy minister had said. The investigation is sure to take a political hue, as it targets the first family of Congress.

BJP has repeatedly accused Congress of using CBI to embroil its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in an ongoing investigation into encounter killings in Gujarat. The state revenue department is looked after by the chief minister.

Speaking to ET on Friday, Chandra Mohan Meena, chairman of the revenue board, confirmed that district collectors had been asked to collate information. “(We wrote) about threefour days ago seeking details of Robert Vadra’s land (deals), and responses are awaited.”


State govt wanted to focus on Bikaner could not recall who had asked the question in the assembly, but said more details cannot be provided since he is legally bound to maintain secrecy about questions from assembly members. The assembly will resume its ongoing session after February 19.

Jaisalmer district collector NL Meena said the details sought had been sought about “the number of land transactions conducted in Robert Vadra’s name, the location of these land parcels and their current value.” The collector said no such transaction had been unearthed in Jaisalmer district.

“We could not find any land deal done in the name of Vadra. I had summoned the registrars of all tehsils in my district, but they did not find any such land transactions.

A response to the official question has been sent accordingly.” In a news report published in ET’s edition dated December 25, the state’s energy minister had said a probe into Robert Vadra’s business affairs would concentrate on the Bikaner district in which several land transactions are said to have taken place in the last few years.

The collector of the Bikaner district did not respond to repeated calls and messages. The minister’s December statement came after senior BJP MPs from Rajasthan demanded an enquiry into the deals. However, till the proceedings initiated by the revenue board a few days ago, there had been no move by the government to launch a probe.