The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at around 15 establishments linked to Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh in connection with an alleged forest land scam in the hill state.
The ED had registered a case against Rawat in 2023 after the scam was unearthed. Rawat had deserted the Congress in 2016 and joined the BJP. He was labour minister in the Pushkar Singh Dhami government but returned to the Congress in 2022 when the BJP suspended him for anti-party activities. Earlier, he was forest minister.
Sources at Dehradun in Pauri Garhwal district said ED teams arrived at the gates of Rawat’s residence early in the morning.
“An ED team of six members entered Rawat’s house in Dehradun after someone opened it from inside. A police team removed people who had gathered there and cordoned off the area,” a Dehradun resident, who didn’t want to be named, told reporters.
The Forest Survey of India had alleged that Rawat as environment and forest minister had in 2000 illegally felled 6,000 trees in the Pakhru Tiger Safari range of the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve although he had permission to cut down 160. Land adjacent to the forest was also sold or grabbed and unauthorised constructions were allowed there, the Forest Survey of India alleged.
“We hired a keymaker when Rawat’s family told the ED team in Dehradun that they had lost the key to a particular locker in the house. When opened, the team found documents only,” a police officer in Uttarakhand was quoted as saying by reporters.
“The ED has found some cash in the house of a retired and a serving forest officer who were allegedly involved in the tree-felling case with Rawat. The counting of cash is going on in their houses. The team asked us for a note-counting machine, which we have provided to them,” said the officer, requesting anonymity.
The Dhami government had in 2023 also started a vigilance inquiry against Rawat for taking over land belonging to the state. The case was eventually transferred to the ED.
There is a CBI probe pending against Rawat for allegedly using government equipment, including generator sets, in his private establishments.
