ED Issues Summons To Congress Leader Harak Singh In Money Laundering Case For April 2

Enforcement Directorate has issued a fresh summons to Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat in a money laundering investigation.

Harak Singh Rawat had missed his first summons.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh summons for Congress leader and former Uttarakhand Cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat to be questioned in a money laundering case investigation on April 2, according to PTI. This comes after Rawat was asked to appear before the central agency on February 29. However, he requested a postponement of the notice, citing some work.

As per PTI sources, Rawat has been asked to depose on April 2 at the ED office in Dehradun. He has been summoned in the case of illegal occupation of forest department land and illegal cutting of trees in Corbett National Park.

On February 7, ED raided the premises of Rawat and others in connection with the case. The central agency earlier said it seized Indian and foreign currency worth about Rs 1.20 crore, gold and "voluminous" documents during the searches. However, an official statement issued by it did not specify what was recovered from where. Rawat, 63, is a former forest minister in the state who left the BJP before of the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections to join the Congress.

Ilegal Felling Of Trees At Corbett Tiger Reserve

The ED was also investigating Birendra Singh Kandari, a "close associate" of Rawat, Indian Forest Service (IFoS) official and former DFO Kishan Chand, and former forest range officer Brij Bihari Sharma.

The Supreme Court had recently pulled up Rawat and Kishan Chand, highlighting that they had disregarded the "public trust doctrine" by permitting illegal construction and the felling of trees in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR).

One of the FIRs was filed by the Uttarakhand Police against Kandari and others. The first is based on a Uttarakhand Police FIR against Kandari and others.

Kandari and Narendra Kumar Walia created a "criminal conspiracy" with Rawat and obtained two powers of attorney for land for which the sale deed had been annulled by the court, as per PTI.

They illegally sold this land to Rawat's wife Deepti Rawat and one Laxmi Singh on which the Doon Institute of Medical Science, Dehradun, was constructed under the Shrimati Poorna Devi Memorial Trust, as per PTI sources. 

FIR Under Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife (Protection) Act

The state government's vigilance department filed a second FIR against Sharma, Chand, and others under different provisions of the IPC, Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife (Protection) Act, and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The ED claimed that Kishan Chand, the then divisional forest officer (DFO), and Sharma, the forest ranger at the time, conspired with other bureaucrats and Rawat to publish a tender for a higher amount than the authorised financial powers and that the tender was also not per the state government's rules/guidelines. They also "fabricated" papers and "misused" funds under the titles of Tiger Conservation Foundation and Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), resulting in a wrongful loss worth crores of rupees to the Uttarakhand government, it said.

They are also accused of illegally cutting over 6,000 trees although just 163 trees had been authorized, according to the ED. Chand and Sharma were suspended due to alleged violations in the forest department. Chand was detained in Delhi in December 2022, and in April 2023, the high court granted him conditional release.