Trouble mounted for Uttarakhand Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat as the Enforcement Directorate, reportedly raided over 10 locations including his premises over illegal activities in the Corbett Tiger Reserve, on Wednesday. Multiple premises in Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh were under search ambit of the probe agency.
After advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal filed the petition over the matter, the Central Empowered Committee constituted by the Supreme Court found former Uttarakhand forest minister Harak Singh Rawat and then divisional forest officer or DFO Kishan Chand guilty for conducting numerous illegal activities the previous year.
These included, illegal construction activities in connection with the tiger safari in 2021and other projects in the Pakhro and Morghatti forest areas of the Kalagarh Forest Division of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
The Uttarakhand Vigilance department got the committee’s green signal to continue with the legal proceedings against the forest officials involved in the misconduct.
Harak Singh Rawat, formerly leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was dismissed from the State cabinet and the primary membership of the party for six years due to “anti-party activities”. Ahead of the Uttarakhand Assembly election in 2022, he joined the Congress. However, the BJP clinched the election for the second consecutive term.
