(This story originally appeared in on Dec 07, 2018)

NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi ’s son-in-law Robert Vadra has been issued a third summons by the Enforcement Directorate asking him to appear before the investigating officer in the Bikaner land deal money laundering case for questioning.Vadra, whose Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd is being investigated for “fraudulently” acquiring land in Bikaner meant for rehabilitation of poor villagers, has avoided two previous summonses. The last summons was issued for his personal appearance this week when he chose to send his representatives instead.Sources in the agency said Vadra was wilfully avoiding summonses where his personal appearance is necessary to record his statement in connection with evidence gathered against Sky Light Hospitality over the last three years. Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the agency has the power to seek custodial interrogation of an accused who is wilfully avoiding joining investigation.Vadra had called the repeated summonses “political witch-hunt” and accused the agencies of having an “agenda” to tarnish his reputation.In December 2017, the ED had arrested two accused in the Bikaner land scam, Jaiprakash Bagarwa and Ashok Kumar. The latter, according to the ED, is a close associate of Mahesh Nagar, the authorised representative of Sky Light Hospitality. Vadra and his mother Maureen are directors in the company which is accused of money laundering.Rajasthan police had filed cases against Sky Light Hospitality and others in August 2014 after the NDA government came to power at the Centre. In September 2015, the ED registered a case against the company and others under PMLA based on the FIRs and 20 chargesheets of Rajasthan police.The ED probe found that Ashok Kumar was used as a conduit by Mahesh Nagar, brother of a Congress MLA, who knew the “fraudulent nature of 69.55 hectares Sky Light Hospitality had purchased for Rs 72 lakh and later sold to Allegeney Finlease Pvt Ltd for Rs 5.15 crore”.According to ED investigation, Allegeney “was not involved in any real business activity and its shareholders were found to be dummy/non-existent”.The financial trails of Allegeny showed that the company had received funds from a leading steel and power company which it used to purchase the Bikaner land from Sky Light Hospitality.Sources said the ED had questioned all the front entities involved in the Bikaner land scam and Vadra’s questioning was important to establish the actual beneficiary of the deal and take the case for prosecution.