ED raids several locations linked to Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat in alleged forest scam case

Enforcement Directorate is conducting raids over a dozen locations linked to former Uttarakhand Minister Harak Singh Rawat, news agency ANI has reported citing sources on 7 February. As per sources, ED is conducting raids in Delhi, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand in an alleged forest scam case.

Rawat had quit the BJP ahead of the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly polls and joined the Congress. The ED investigation is understood to be linked to alleged illegal activities in the state's Corbett Tiger Reserve, PTI has reported.

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During Rawat's tenure as the state forest minister in the BJP Government, he and some of his departmental officers had come under serious allegations related to their involvement in illegal tree cutting and construction in the Pakhro range of Corbett Park under the Tiger Safari Project.

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As per Forest Survey of India (FSI) report, it has claimed that more than 6,000 trees were illegally cut in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) against the permission of 163 for the Pakhru tiger safari. However, the state forest department refuted the FSI's claims and said that some technical issues needed to be resolved before finally accepting the report.

This, however, isn't the first time that properties linked to Rawat have come under scrutiny by the ED officials, as earlier, the Uttarakhand Vigilance Team had raided an institute in Dehradun's Shankarpur and a petrol pump in Chhiddarwala linked to him.

(More details awaited)