The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at 17 locations in Delhi, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh in connection with an alleged money laundering case linked to Uttarakhand Congress leader and former minister Harak Singh Rawat, reports The Indian Express.
The case pertains to the alleged felling of thousands of trees, financial irregularities and illegal construction in the Pakhro Tiger Reserve range of Corbett National Park in 2019.
The residence of Rawat in Defence Colony residence and a medical college in Dehradun were also searched, IE reported, citing sources.
In October 2021, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and had conducted inspections following allegations of felling trees in the tiger reserve area. The same was also undertaken in December 20211 by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
It found irregularities in the construction of Kandi Road, houses in Morghati and Pakhro forest rest house premises well as the construction of a water body near the Pakhro forest rest house.
Teams of the Uttrakhand Vigilance Department had in August 2023 raided a medical college and a petrol pump owned by Rawat’s son in connection with a probe into alleged large-scale felling of trees and illegal constructions at Kaulagarh Tiger Reserve in the Corbett National Park.
The 63-year-old leader had quit the BJP ahead of the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly polls and joined the Congress.
Rawat was with the Congress for 18 years, and joined the BJP in 2016 after rebelling with the previous Harish Rawat government. In 2022, he was expelled from the BJP for allegedly asking tickets for him and his daughter-in-law for the Assembly elections.