A corruption inquiry panel that was called illegal by the High Court; a mining scam in which the BJP government cancelled over 500 letters of intent; alleged misuse of power by Lalit Modi; a case of expensive carpets going missing where the court dismissed a plea for probe; use of public funds for party yatras; and a panel that cleared almost all decisions taken by the previous government. These are the key “Vasundhara Raje cases” in which the Ashok Gehlot government has not taken any action, alleged Sachin Pilot as he defied the Congress high command’s anti-party warning and held a day-long fast Tuesday. Raje has not reacted but BJP leader Rajendra Rathore said Pilot should seek an impartial investigation into the corruption in the Congress government. Gehlot is yet to comment on Pilot's claims. A spokesperson said he might speak on the issue Wednesday. The cases Pilot flagged: 1) Charges of abuse of power In January 2009, the Gehlot government constituted the N N Mathur Inquiry Commission to inquire into charges of abuse of power including misappropriation of funds, during Vasundhara Raje’s tenure as Chief Minister between 2003 and 2008, with the Congress estimating the irregularities worth Rs 22,000 crore. However, the Rajasthan High Court held the commission to be illegal, and directed that the cases pending before it be referred to the Lokayukta. The Rajasthan government approached the Supreme Court, but a Bench of Justices D K Jain and H L Dattu too held that proper procedure was not followed by the state. Pilot’s charge: Rules were intentionally overlooked during the constitution of the commission, and that the panel itself had alleged that it received little help from government officials. Action awaited. 2) Mining 'scam' In 2015, when Raje was CM, the Congress alleged “irregularities in allocation of 653 mines covering more than 22,000 hectares of land without auction”. And that “mineral wealth” worth Rs 3 lakh crore went to “favoured individuals and companies.” The Congress later met the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and sought a CBI inquiry. The case was taken up by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Enforcement Directorate while Raje was in power. Among eight persons arrested by the ACB was the then principal secretary to the Mines and Petroleum Department. He was later granted bail. The Raje government also cancelled 534 Letters of Intent (LoIs) for mines in the state, but the LoI holders got a stay from the High Court. Eventually, the Supreme Court stayed the HC order. The then mining minister, Rajkumar Rinwa, was eventually expelled by the BJP after he rebelled when he was denied a ticket in the 2018 Assembly elections. He joined the Congress in 2019, but returned to the BJP in November 2022. Pilot’s charge: In his letter to Gehlot, Pilot asks why the state government has not ordered a CBI inquiry into the matter yet. 3) Lalit Modi-Raje controversy In mid-2015, then CM Raje came under fire over her association with then IPL chief Lalit Modi. She was accused of instances of alleged impropriety, including of having helped Modi by signing an affidavit favouring his immigration application to the UK in 2011. Soon after, it was alleged that the Raje government had facilitated the purchase of two heritage havelis in Jaipur at throwaway prices by Modi and his late wife in 2006-07. In November 2010, these havelis had been seized by the Jaipur Municipal Corporation and transferred to the Archaeology Department. As per ED and IT records, on April 12, 2010, Raje, who had earlier that year resigned as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, travelled from Delhi to Dehradun and back on a plane chartered by Modi, the IPL chief at the time. Modi was alleged to have settled the bill of Rs 5.51 lakh on July 26, 2010, through a cheque. The Congress accused Raje's son Dushyant Singh too of links with Lalit Modi, saying the latter had bought a significant number of overpriced shares from Dushyant’s firm Niyant Heritage Hotels Pvt Ltd. Then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj too had come under fire for Lalit Modi managing to make his way abroad despite these allegations. The BJP had backed both Raje and Swaraj and denied any wrongdoing. Pilot’s charge: “Despite (this) being such a serious case, our government has not been able to take any substantial action.” 4) Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra 'misuse of govt funds' In September 2018, the Rajasthan High Court restrained the Raje government from organising government programmes along the route of her Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra. The court said inaugurating public programmes during a political rally “would be the glorification of the political party and not the glorification of the achievements by the government”. The PIL in the case had been filed by Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma – currently the Additional Advocate General - and social activist Sawai Singh. Sharma asked why party programmes were being funded by the government. Pilot’ charge: “People were expecting that once our government is formed, Raje and her high level officials will be investigated impartially for misusing government funds for yatra. But our government has not been able to take any action in this direction.” 5) Missing Iranian carpets case The case pertains to eight Iranian carpets going missing from a government-run hotel. In 2009, the Public Works Department lodged an FIR in Jaipur stating that it had received a letter on March 3, 2005, from the office of CM Raje, demanding two carpets. In another letter, dated September 17, 2005, the CM’s office reportedly again demanded six carpets to be used at her office and residence. It was alleged that the carpets were to be received from Rajasthan State Hotel Corporation, Khasa Kothi, for two years on rent, consent for which was given by the general manager of the corporation. As per the complaint, the carpets were obtained by PWD Executive Engineer Rakesh Kumar Bhargava, and reportedly handed over to Dhirendra Kamthan, Officer on Special Duty to CM. But neither was the rent paid nor were the carpets ever returned. In 2009, the HC stayed the arrests of Kamthan and Bhargava in the case. Under Raje’s second tenure as CM in 2015, the Jaipur police gave a clean chit to the officials. In 2016, the Rajasthan High Court dismissed a petition seeking a CBI probe, saying the petitioner has no locus standi in the case. In 2017, the Supreme Court too dismissed this petition, reportedly observing that, “The police have filed a closure report and there is no proof of Chief Minister's role in the disappearance of the carpets.” In 2019, Independent MLA and Gehlot loyalist Sanyam Lodha raised the issue in the Assembly, with Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh saying the government will investigate and bring back the carpets. Pilot’s charge: “Our government has been constituted twice since the incident, but till date we have failed to tell the people where the carpets are. Who was behind the vanishing of priceless carpets? This is still pending.” 6) Investigation into decisions in last six months of Raje government in 2018 In 2019, the Gehlot government constituted a cabinet sub-committee led by veteran party leader and senior minister Shanti Dhariwal to investigate decisions taken in the last six months of the Raje government. In 2020, of the total 1,067 decisions it investigated, it gave a clean chit in 1,059. The committee only cancelled eight decisions of the Raje government. However, there were allegations that the committee – which held all of eight meetings – rushed through the decisions and that several departments did not furnish any information. In the case of 30 departments, the committee did not find any decisions to be reviewed; in case of 21, decisions were reviewed thoroughly; information received from 12 departments was not looked at by the committee due to paucity of time; and no information was received from 14 departments. Pilot’s charge: “No effective action taken by this committee has come before the public.”
