Harak Singh Rawat, Cong. leader summoned By ED

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has summoned Harak Singh Rawat, a former Uttarakhand minister and Congress leader, and others in connection with a money laundering probe.

The ED has requested that the Congress leader come to the agency’s office for questioning on February 29.

Rawat, 63, is a former forest minister of the state who joined the Congress ahead of the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly election.

Notably, on February 7, the ED raided Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Delhi, including Rawat’s residence, in connection with the suspected forest fraud.

During his term as state forest minister, Rawat and several of his departmental personnel were allegedly involved in unlawful tree cutting and building in Corbett Park’s Pakhro area as part of the Tiger Safari project.

The Forest Survey of India (FSI) alleged in its study that more than 6,000 trees were illegally chopped in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) despite 163 permissions for the Pakhru Tiger Safari.

However, the state forest department denied the FSI’s assertions, stating that some technical difficulties needed to be addressed before accepting the report.

Previously, the Uttarakhand Vigilance Team searched an institute in Dehradun’s Shankarpur and a petrol pump in Chhiddarwala, both linked to Harak Singh Rawat.