New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday for questioning in a foreign exchange violation case and got his statement recorded for almost eight hours. The federal agency issued a summons to Vaibhav Gehlot (43) last week, asking him to appear before the investigating officer of the case at its headquarters on A P J Abdul Kalam Road here under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
Gehlot arrived at the ED office around 11 am. Vaibhav Gehlot is also the president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association and a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). Following the summons, he had said the agency was putting up "10-12 years old false allegations against him and that too, after election dates were declared".
The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will go to polls on November 25 and the results will be announced on December 3, along with the outcome of the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana elections. The ED recorded Vaibhav Gehlot's statement in accordance with the provisions of the FEMA, under which legal proceedings are civil in nature.
"I or my family have no links to the FEMA or foreign transactions.... They (ED) gave me less time to appear in the summons. I had sought 15 days' time.... They should have given more time to me," Gehlot told reporters outside the ED office after he came out for an hour-long lunch break. Exiting the agency's office after 8 pm, he told the reporters waiting outside that the ED has called him again on November 16 and reiterated that he or his companies have done no wrong.
The FEMA summons was linked to recent ED raids against Rajasthan-based hospitality group Triton Hotels and Resorts Private Limited, Vardha Enterprises Private Limited and its directors and promoters Shiv Shankar Sharma, Rattan Kant Sharma and others. The agency had searched the group and its promoters for three days in August at locations in Jaipur, Udaipur, Mumbai and Delhi. It had claimed to have recovered "incriminating" documents during the raids and alleged that the Triton group was "involved in hawala transactions having cross-border implications".
The agency also seized "unaccounted" cash amounting to Rs 1.27 crore and digital evidence, hard discs, mobile phones etc., which show "large-scale transactions done by the group out of the books of account", it had said in a statement. The ED had also said "unaccounted" cash receipts were invested in the development of hotels.
Rattan Kant Sharma's alleged links with Vaibhav Gehlot are under the ED's scanner. He was a business partner of Gehlot in a car rental company in the past. Ashok Gehlot and the Congress had described the ED action as politically motivated. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had alleged that agencies such as the ED, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and income-tax department become the real "panna pramukh (party workers)" of the BJP when elections come.
"Seeing its certain defeat in Rajasthan, the Bharatiya Janata Party made its last throw of the dice! After Chhattisgarh, the ED has also entered the election campaign in Rajasthan and started action against Congress leaders," Kharge had said on X.
Ashok Gehlot had put up a picture of the ED summons sent to his son on his X handle and told a press conference that the Congress announced guarantees for the women of Rajasthan on October 25 and the agency's raids against his son and state party chief Govind Singh Dotasra came just a day later.
