Laxmi Vilas is a five-star hotel on the shores of Lake Fateh Sagar
Highlight
- A special CBI court has requested a criminal case against Arun Shourie
- The Udaipur Palace hotel was sold at a heavy loss to the taxpayer, he said
- The court wants the hotel sale case to be reopened
New Delhi:
One of Rajasthan’s grandest palace hotel was grossly undervalued and sold at a great loss to taxpayers in 2002 and former Union Minister Arun Shourie should be indicted by it, a special IWC court said. In a corruption case involving the sale of the Laxmi Vilas Palace Hotel in Udaipur, the court has requested criminal cases against Arun Shourie, former bureaucrat Pradeep Baijal and hotelier Jyotsna Suri.
The court wants the hotel sale case to be reopened.
“Unknown officials and private individuals indulged in this conspiracy from 1999 to 2002 to cause the government to lose money. The land was valued at 45 rupees per square meter. Even a spoon in the hotel would be more expensive than that,” said a special CBI judge.
The Laxmi Vilas hotel was valued at more than 252 million rupees, but was sold for 7.5 million rupees to hotelier Lalit Suri, the CBI special court said. Jyotsna Suri took over the Lalit hotel group after the death of her husband Lalit Suri.
Arun Shourie, a veteran journalist who was Divestment Minister at the time, said he would file a petition for review in the Rajasthan High Court against the order.
“When you have a property, the evaluation is based on several factors: the rate of the land, the possibility of growth, the commercial potential, the assets and liabilities. All these are studied and were studied not by a single man but by a government-appointed company. The whole committee looked at it. Due process was followed and then the property was sold, “Shourie told NDTV.
The Laxmi Vilas Palace, a spectacular five-star hotel on the shores of Fateh Sagar Lake, is a massive attraction for tourists and one of the most popular destinations in India.
“The defenders will review the order and then we will decide what to do next,” Arun Shourie said.
The CBI had submitted a closure report at the end of 2019 saying that there was “no evidence” in the 2002 case. “It is concluded that in the entire divestment process of the M / s Laxmi Vilas Palace hotel, Udaipur, no evidence was found that it is worthwhile to initiate a judicial process “, said the agency.
But the Jodhpur special court rejected the report and ordered a further investigation.
“The judge gave no reason not to accept the CBI closure report. Arrest warrants have been issued without bail as if we were terrorists, murderers and rapists,” Shourie said.
According to the CBI closing report, accessed by NDTV, the divestiture of the government-run luxury hotel “resulted in an illicit loss of approximately Rs 143.48 crore to the government and a corresponding illicit gain to the defendants. Individually / jointly “.
But the agency blamed the valuation on a private company, Kanti Karamsey. The CBI said that the property was undervalued at Rs 7.85 crore and based on this valuation, the reserve price was set at Rs 6.12 crore.
“During the course of the investigation, we had reassessed the property through the Income Tax Department and it was valued at Rs 193.28 crore. The undervaluation of the property by Kanti Karamsey and the company led to the loss to the treasury,” sources from the agency said. NDTV.
The CBI registered a case on August 13, 2014 on the basis of a preliminary investigation that alleged that Pradeep Baijal had abused his position as Secretary of Divestment in the sale of the hotel. But last year, he filed a closing report.
The Laxmi Vilas palace belonged to the ancient kings of Udaipur. During the accession of the princely states, massive property was turned over to the government. After independence, the government operated it as a hotel. In 2002 it was divested and bought by the Lalit Suri hotel group.
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