IT, ED raid houses and offices of bizmen close to Gehlot

JAIPUR/KOTA: The political crisis in Rajasthan took a new turn on Monday after

Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate

teams raided multiple premises of businessmen connected to people from chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s camp.


According to I-T officials, simultaneous searches were conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Kota in offices of state Congress leaders and businessmen close to Gehlot, including Rajeev Arora and Dharmendra Rathode, considered close to the chief minister. Searches were also conducted at the

luxury hotel

and offices of Om Kothari, a Kotabased businessman. Unaccounted cash, jewellery, property papers and lockers were seized, officials said.

Congress national media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala hit out at the BJP for “misusing

investigative agencies

for its self-fulfilling goals.”

He said IT, ED and CBI were the frontal organisations of the BJP. Surjewala said when money power failed to lure the MLAs, the BJP unleashed central agencies on Congress leaders.

According to I-T department sources, searches were also carried out in Delhi on the premises of one of Kothari brothers, who once was awarded a mega irrigation project in Rajasthan and faced complaints of irregularities in dam construction.

Sources said the searches were conducted on the office premises of Om Metals Infra Projects Ltd in Saket area and at Kothari’s residential premises in Sainik Farms area.

Meanwhile, the ED team also carried out searches at Hotel Fairmont in Jaipur.

According to ED sources, investor Ratan Kant Sharma, a close aide of Gehlot’s son Vaibhav, is under the financial probe agency’s scanner.

An ED source claimed that Sharma had allegedly received around Rs 96.7 crore from Mauritius and has stakes in Hotel Fairmont.

The ED source claimed that Sharma and Vaibhav Gehlot are business partners.

Sharma was summoned by the ED four days ago. The agency suspects that largescale overseas transactions have taken place.

Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot is reported to have started his professional career with a job in Om Kothari Group and the IT raids is seen as a move by central government to mount pressure on the Congress government that is currently facing crisis over its stability. The Om Kothari Group (Om Metals) has a wide range of business in real estate, infrastructure, education and logistics.

I-T joint director M Raghuveer did not respond to calls for his comments on details of raids and recovery.