A week before the Rajya Sabha elections the BJP government in Rajasthan has revived an old case against businessman B.D. Agarwal, who is the founder and president of the Zamindara party, which has two MLAs in the state Assembly. Mr Agarwal’s party is part of the third front that is supporting industrialist and former union minister Kamal Morarka. On Thursday, the police raided Mr Agarwal’s house, factory and office to arrest him in a fraud case registered in February 2015. Mr Agarwal’s company has allegedly sent raised fake agreements and bills to claim Rs 160 crore without supplying guar seeds to a Jodhpur based company. While Mr Agarwal managed to flee, the police have arrested four people including his nephew.
Mr Agarwal is the chairman and managing director of Vikas WSP, a company which counts itself among the world’s leading manufacturers and exporters of guar gum powder. He shot to fame when he offered a cheque of Rs 100 crore to then chief minister Ashok Gehlot for opening of a medical college. As usual, independents and smaller parties are the obvious target for the party in power. What also lent strength to the suspicion is the timing, as the police was sitting idle for 15 months and swung into action on the day Morarka’s nomination papers cleared scrutiny thus making the polling necessary on June 11.
