The Enforcement Directorate Tuesday conducted searches at the Jaipur residence of Congress leader Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, the former transport minister in the Ashok Gehlot government. While there is no official statement from ED yet, the searches are said to be linked to the alleged Pearl Agro Corporation Limited (PACL) scam.
In August 2020, during the political crisis in the state, Khachariyawas had appeared before ED and was questioned for several hours over his family’s alleged involvement in the PACL case in related land transactions on the border.
Speaking to journalists outside their residence, Khachariyawas’s elder brother Karan Singh said that “government is doing such a misdeed to silence Khachariyawas’s voice”.
“There was a case related to Pearl group against me but it was closed. So presently, I don’t know why they are searching. They are asking questions from us. It (PACL) was a reputed company and there was a BJP government both in the Centre and State. If such things were happening, where was the government then?” he asked.
However, Khachariyawas intervened saying that there is no such case related to PACL against any family member, “The notice given by them is of search. They have not mentioned any case or any company whatsoever. Had they given me a notice, or shown a transaction and said that there is such and such charge against me, I would have given an answer. But they have only come to search the premises.”
He added that he was served a notice early morning which mentioned searches at his residence and did not specify a reason.
As his enraged supporters gathered outside his residence in large numbers and chanted against the ED and BJP, Khachariaywas calmed them but added that “BJP has dug its own grave.” Some of his supporters even threatened violence, with one of them saying that if something happens to Khachariyawas, “then there will be a Rajasthan bandh and streams of blood will flow down the streets.”
Criticising the BJP government, Khachariyawas said, “They aren’t ashamed. This is the home of the BJP’s founding member and former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s younger brother Laxman Singh Shekhawat, this is not Pratap Singh Khachariyawas’s home. You are not loyal even to Bhairon Singh.” The former VP has also been Rajasthan CM.
Khachariyawas has been in active politics since his student days and was the Rajasthan University Students’ Union president in 1992. He was then close to Vasundhara Raje but left BJP as the Congress fielded him from the Jaipur Lok Sabha seat in 2004. He lost but stayed with Congress, winning the MLA elections twice, and was a cabinet minister in the previous Gehlot government. He had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but lost.
Khachariyawas said his father Laxman is over 85 years old now, and his mother has been unwell for the last month and a half. “ED, IT, and these agencies have a right to come and investigate. We will cooperate; I am not scared. The BJP government is corrupt, so it should be scared, not me. I am not bothered,” he said, adding that he received no prior notice from the Central agency, and they turned up directly for the searches, “which is wrong.”
“ED should have given me a notice. There is no ED case pending against us and there is no basis for their action. They merely said that they would conduct searches on this property. Had they called me, I would have appeared. But when ED can call my leader Rahul Gandhi, then I am just a party worker,” he added.
Meanwhile former CM Gehlot, Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra joined others in criticising the ED searches. Condemning the searches, Gehlot said it wasn’t surprising. “In 2020, when Mr Khachariyawas was vehemently opposing BJP’s attempt to topple the Congress government in Rajasthan, the ED interrogated him for 7-8 hours on 12 August 2020, only with the aim of harassing him. Because he remains vocal against the BJP government in Rajasthan, the ED has knocked on his door again.
“Before the assembly elections, ED had raided the house of our state president Shri Govind Dotasra and the house of the then MLA Shri O P Hudla for political purposes. Even then the ED was exposed,” Gehlot said. Dotasra said that ED is conducting searches because Khachariyawas asked “sharp questions on the Rs 100 crores spent by the BJP government on the dance and song of #IIFA” and because “he is holding the government accountable on every issue.”
ED had initiated an investigation into the alleged PACL scam based on the First Report Information (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The FIR was lodged against PACL India Limited, PGF, Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, and others. It was alleged that PACL collected money from the public through illegal collective investment schemes for allotting plots in various parts of the country or giving an option to take back their expected tentative land value in lieu of the allotted plot under the scheme on maturity.
PACL was banned by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for illegally collecting at least Rs 49,100 crore from 58 million investors over 18 years. As per ED, its investigation revealed that PACL directors siphoned off the amount received from investors by transferring the funds to shell companies located in Kolkata in the guise of land development expenses.
These funds were later withdrawn in cash and handed over to the key associates of PACL in Delhi. These funds were further transferred from Delhi via hawala to companies incorporated in Dubai in the name of the key associates of PACL for the purchase of immovable properties abroad.
In 2016, upon directions from the Supreme Court, SEBI had set up a Committee under Justice (retd.) R M Lodha for overseeing the process of property disposal and restituting the money to investors.
ED initiated an investigation into the alleged PACL scam based on the FIR registered by CBI (Express File) 
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