RAJASTHAN Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here for questioning in a foreign exchange violation case. The federal agency had last week issued summons to Vaibhav Gehlot (43) to appear before the investigating officer of the case, at its headquarters on A P J Abdul Kalam road, under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). 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 that the agency was putting up “10-12 years old false allegations against him and that too after election dates were declared”.

 

Voting for the 200-seat Rajasthan Assembly will be held on Nov 25. Counting of votes in Rajasthan along with 4 other states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana will take place on Dec 3. The agency recorded Vaibhav Gehlot’s statement under the FEMA, under which legal proceedings are civil in nature. The FEMA summons are linked to recent ED raids against Rajasthan based hospitality group Triton Hotels & Resorts Pvt. Ltd., Vardha Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. 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 had been “involved in hawala transactions having cross- border implications.”

 

The agency also seized “unaccounted” cash of Rs 1.27 crore and digital evidence, hard disks, mobiles etc. Which show “large-scale transactions done by the group out of the books of account”, the ED had said in a statement. It added that “unaccounted” cash receipts have been invested in development of hotels. Rattan Kant Sharma’s alleged links with Vaibhav Gehlot are under the scanner of the ED and the agency is expected to question and record his statement under FEMA. He has been a business partner of Vaibhav Gehlot in a car rental company in the past.