The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned former Uttarakhand minister and Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat, along with others, as part of a money laundering investigation.
Rawat, aged 63, has been directed to appear at the ED’s office for questioning on February 29. He previously served as the state’s forest minister and joined the Congress party ahead of the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly polls.
This summons from the ED follows raids conducted across Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Delhi, including at Rawat’s residence, on February 7 in connection with an alleged forest scam case.
During Rawat’s tenure as the state forest minister, he and some of his departmental officers were allegedly involved in illegal tree cutting and construction in the Pakhro range of Corbett Park under the Tiger Safari Project.
According to the Forest Survey of India (FSI), more than 6,000 trees were illegally cut in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR), despite permission being granted for only 163 trees for the Pakhru Tiger Safari. However, the state forest department contested the FSI’s findings, citing technical issues that needed resolution before accepting the report.
In previous instances, the Uttarakhand Vigilance Team had conducted raids on an institute in Dehradun’s Shankarpur and a petrol pump in Chhiddarwala that were linked to Rawat.
