The police was investigating the case that involves acquision and sale of 1,400 acres of land in Bikaner.
The investigation into the acquisition and sale of 1,400 acres of land in Rajasthan's Bikaner will be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the state government has decided. The move has triggered a political controversy. The case names Skylight Hospitality -- a firm linked to Robert Vadra, whose mother-in-law Sonia Gandhi heads the Congress.
The state home department said it was necessary to give the case to the CBI as its concerns the Army firing range at Mahajan on the India-Pakistan border and has ramifications for national security. Home minister Gulab Chand Katariya said he has been told that the Vadra file had come to him. "I am going to look at it and then take further action," he said.
The Congress contends that with just 14 months to go before assembly elections, the transfer is meant to turn the heat on the party's first family. Pointing out that the people arrested are from the BJP, state Congress chief Sachin Pilot said when elections are close, the government tends to "misuse" the CBI, Income Tax and the Enforcement Department.
Mr Vadra is already under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate. The agency had sent notices to the firm last year after raiding 8 places in connection with this case.
The issue dates back to 2007, when 1,400 acres of land in Bikaner was illegally sold to private companies. The land was meant to be given as compensation to farmers whose plots were acquired by the government to set up the firing range at Mahajan. But instead, it allegedly went to fictitious beneficiaries. Among the companies that bought land was Skylight Hospitality - the firm acquired 60 hectares in 2009, investigators said.
The revenue department stumbled on the matter in 2014 while investigating Robert Vadra's land deals in Rajasthan. The department said its own officials were involved in the fraud. In 2014, the police registered 18 First Information Reports and arrested 8 people.
Of the 18 FIRs, Skylight Hospitality has been named in four, though investigations conducted so far have not found any illegality.