PrashantNews
After illegal trees felling case, Uttarakhand Congress leader and former cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat is in news again after he was found allegedly involved in the Rs 70 crore land grabbing case.
Acting swiftly in the case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 101 bighas (approximately 62 acres) of land, with a market price of Rs 70 crore in Dehradun linked to the family of Rawat following a detailed probe.
The ED has provisionally attached immovable property on Jan 20, 2025, in the form of land around 101 bighas situated in Dehradun district and having a registered value of Rs 6.6 crore with the current market value of nearly Rs 70 crore in the case of Birendra Singh Kandari and others under the provisions of PMLA, 2002, a statement by the agency said.
The case came to light after the ED began its investigation in February 2024 and found that despite a court order, the late Sushila Rani had registered two powers of attorney for the land in favour of Kandari and another individual, Narendra Kumar Walia.
Kandari, a former personal secretary to Rawat, later sold the land to his wife Deepti Rawat and close friend Lakshmi Rana, at throw-away price.
The land was sold at a price far below the applicable circle rate. Currently, a medical institute stands on the land. The institute is run by a trust chaired by Deepti Rawat and other close associates of Rawat. The investigation has revealed that Deepti conspired with Kandari, the late Rani, and others to acquire the land fraudulently. The ED probe is continuing in this regard, the statement added.
Rawat was recently in news after he was questioned by ED in a separate probe into the alleged illegal tree felling case in Pakhro range of Corbett Tiger Reserve. The CBI is also probing the case which came to light when over 6000 trees were allegedly felled and some illegal construction activities were also done. Two top state forest officials have already been arrested in the case.
Nearly two decades ago, Rawat was given a clean chit by the CBI in a rape case related to an unwed mother from Assam.