The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 26 summoned Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot in a foreign exchange violation case.
Mr. Vaibhav Gehlot has been asked to depose before the federal agency’s headquarters in New Delhi on October 27, the sources said.
However, he is expected to seek a fresh date for his appearance as he needs to gather documents dating from 2011 till now to furnish them to the ED investigators, they said.
The summons is linked to the recent ED raids against Rajasthan-based hospitality group Triton Hotels & Resorts Pvt. Ltd., Vardha Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. and its directors and promoters Shiv Shankar Sharma, Rattan Kant Sharma and others.
The agency had searched the group and its promoters for three days in August at locations in Jaipur, Udaipur, Mumbai and Delhi.
Rattan Kant Sharma’s alleged links with Vaibhav Gehlot are under the scanner of the ED and the agency is expected to question and record his statement under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). He has been a business partner of Vaibhav Gehlot in a car rental company in the past.
Unaccounted cash of ₹1.2 crore was seized by the ED after these searches.
The Congress slammed the Centre over the ED’s action against its leaders in Rajasthan and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of taking the help of probe agencies in fighting polls, and said people would give the BJP a befitting reply.
Mr. Ashok Gehlot, reacting to the summons, said the Centre is misusing investigating agencies to target Congress leaders in Rajasthan because of the fear of BJP’s defeat in the upcoming Assembly election. “The ED raids on the premises of PCC president Govind Singh Dotasra and Congress candidate Om Prakash Hudla were made without any complaint being made to it,” he said at a press conference.
“ED issued a notice to Vaibhav Gehlot yesterday and summoned him to its office today. Is it a joke?” asked Mr. Ashok Gehlot.
ED raids were conducted a day after we announced two guarantees for people at a rally of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yesterday. We are going to announce five more guarantees tomorrow. Let them prepare a list of five more Congress leaders in advance for raids, Mr. Gehlot added.
The ED on October 26 raided the premises of Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra and party candidate from Mahua Assembly seat as part of a money laundering investigation into the alleged exam paper leak case in the poll-bound State, official sources said.
The premises of Mr. Dotasra, a former Minister for School Education, in Sikar and Jaipur apart from party candidate from Mahua seat in Dausa, Omprakash Hudla, and some others are being searched, they said.
(With inputs from PTI)
