Vadra land deals: BJP MPs write to Raje demanding probe

New Delhi: Five BJP MPs have asked Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to set up a commission to inquire into alleged irregularities committed by the previous Congress government in the state in land deals involving the companies of Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra. BJP MPs Ravi Shankar Prasad, JP Nadda, Bhupinder Yadav, Arjun Meghwal and Rajendra Aggarwal have written to Raje with a request for a probe into all charges of anomalies in land deals by Vadra’s companies in Bikaner. [caption id=“attachment_1303445” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Vasundhara Raje. Reuters[/caption] The party had raised this matter earlier when Congress’s Ashok Gehlot was chief minister. “There is a Land Ceiling Act in Rajasthan and, when an ordinary person violates it, he faces action from law authorities. Vadra and his companies have openly violated the Act and this was ignored by the then Congress government despite repeated complaints. There is a need for a transparent probe into the matter,” said the letter from the BJP MPs. “Officials misused their position at the behest of the then Rajasthan government to facilitate the purchase of land by Vadra and his companies. The manner in which land was purchased and registered needs to be probed,” it added. Party sources said BJP may similarly take up the issue of irregularities under the Congress government in Haryana, where Vadra is alleged to have bought land at cheap rates. There are murmurs that BJP is targeting Vadra to counter the Union government’s reported intention of forming a judicial commission to probe the illegal surveillance of a woman architect by the Gujarat government, allegedly at the behest of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had said that the Centre was mulling the idea of a probe into the matter. BJP insists that since a judicial commission — appointed by Gujarat government — is already probing the matter, another one is constitutionally unacceptable. PTI