New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday came out in defence of Robert Vadra, who was targeted by the BJP over fraud land deals in Rajasthan, saying the private businessman was actually a victim while the saffron party was guilty in the case. Robert is the son-in-law of former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
"Robert Vadra is actually the victim while the previous BJP government is guilty of fraudulent land allotment. The BJP needs to probe its people,” Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said. According to Surjewala, the two plots totalling 32 hectares in Gajner village of Bikaner district in Rajasthan were actually allotted by the BJP government in February 2007 to two individuals Natharam and Hariram, who sold their plots in November 2007 to two persons Rajender Kumar and Kishore Singh.
In 2010, Rajender and Kishore sold the said plots to Robert Vadra’s company Skylight Hospitality at market rates. However, in 2014, the Bikaner Settlement Commissioner cancelled the land allotment making the purchase by Skylight null and void. The plots then returned to the Rajasthan government and remained with it.
In 2015, four FIRs were filed by the state government in the land allotment but the names of either Robert or Skylight figured nowhere. Later, Robert moved the high court for recovery of his money that he had lost due to fraud deals but the matter is still pending.
Surjewala charged that in 2015, the central government deliberately registered a case with the ED which sent a summons to Robert. Vadra then approached the high court for quashing the ED summons to which the court said that there were no charges against the private businessman. The court also directed the ED that no action be taken against Vadra.
Surjewala pointed out that the central government has not been able to take any action in the ED case for the past eight years and uses the case occasionally to target Robert and the Congress party.
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“The BJP should do research before indulging in such foolishness. The BJP spokesperson is saying this is a fraud deal but actually the saffron party is guilty. When will you probe your own people?” Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said. "We reject such foolish and false attempts with the contempt they deserve,” he said.
According to Surjewala, the BJP was raking up the issue again as the central government was rattled by the Bharat Jodo Yatra. “Unprecedented public response to the Bharat Jodo Yatra has frustrated and unnerved the BJP leadership. Peeved by the insurmountable love and support for Rahul Gandhi and the issues raised by him, the Modi government and the BJP have lost all sense of balance and equilibrium.
They are running helter-skelter to put spanners and obstacles in the path of Bharat Jodo Yatra – from a malicious disinformation campaign about the Yatra and Yatris, taking shelter behind Corona to surreptitiously block the Yatra and now, to level fake allegations against Congress government in Rajasthan and Robert Vadra,” he said.
“The objective is clear – distract, mislead and misinform – from the focus on the issues of inflation, unemployment, unequal distribution of wealth and politics of hate,” he said.
According to the Congress leader, the BJP held a press conference on Tuesday to indulge in “fakery” by stating that the Congress government in Rajasthan between 2008-13 snatched 1000 bighas of land in Bikaner from farmers and allotted the same to Hariram and Natharam, both of whom are fictitious people.
He further said that the BJP said that this land was then sold to Skylight Hospitality of Robert Vadra and that Rajasthan High Court has rejected a case to quash the FIR. “These are devious and bogus attempts at fakery and to peddle lies,” he said.
Surjewala said he had checked the facts of the case with Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and state unit chief Govind Dotasara and both of them said the charges against Robert were false.
