Harish Rawat appears before ED in Uttarakhand recruitment exam case

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Dehradun on Saturday in connection with its money-laundering probe into alleged irregularities in the 2016 Gram Panchayat Vikas Adhikari (VPDO) recruitment examination conducted by the Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission (UKSSSC).

A close aide of Rawat said the ED had sent him a notice two days earlier seeking documents related to his properties, bank accounts and residence.

Rawat, in a Facebook post before appearing before the agency, said he had reached the ED office “with the blessings of Mother”.

“Remembering my mother, Mother Jagadamba and Mother Earth, I have reached the ED office today with the blessings of Mother. I have not called anyone and I have not even told anyone. I have come alone with my mother…”, he said.

The development comes days after the ED’s Dehradun Sub-Zonal Office conducted searches on September 10 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the 2016 UKSSSC VPDO examination case. The agency said the searches were conducted at multiple locations in Dehradun, including the residence of Chandan Singh Jeena, Rawat’s personal assistant. According to the ED, the money-laundering investigation stems from an FIR registered at the Vigilance police station in Dehradun and three subsequent FIRs related to recruitment irregularities.

At Jeena’s residence, the ED said it recovered ₹32 lakh in unaccounted cash, 200.5 grams of gold comprising 13 gold coins and seven gold chains, and 12 luxury wristwatches. The watches included brands such as Rolex, Rado, Piaget, Movado, Tissot and Casio Edifice. The agency also froze bank accounts belonging to Jeena and his family members, with aggregate credit balances of ₹52.16 lakh, and seized mobile phones for forensic examination.

The ED said the total value of assets seized and frozen directly at Jeena’s residence was estimated at ₹1.28 crore. The agency had maintained that its investigation was continuing and that further arrests or attachment of assets could not be ruled out.

On the large quantity of cash, jewellery and other items seized from his former aide in Dehradun, Harish Rawat had said on September 12 that the facts would emerge in due course. He acknowledged that Jeena had served as his officer on special duty (OSD) and had handled significant responsibilities during the various positions Rawat held in the party and government.

Rawat described Jeena as an “extremely decent, humble and hardworking individual” but said that if there had been any tampering with OMR sheets during the recruitment of Gram Sevaks, or if Jeena had committed any such wrongdoing and there was evidence to establish it, he would be ashamed of the alleged act. He, however, said he did not believe the allegation.

Rawat said irregularities in appointments and examinations amounted to playing with the future of the next generation. If he had knowingly or unknowingly committed any act that adversely affected the future of Uttarakhand’s youth, he said he considered himself deserving of censure and apologised to the people of the state. He had also made a public appeal for anyone possessing evidence of his involvement or interference in such appointments to hand it over to the CBI, Enforcement Directorate or state police.

The development has come at a time when both the BJP and Congress have begun stepping up organisational activity ahead of the 2027 Uttarakhand assembly elections.

Harish Rawat has contested Lok Sabha polls nine times so far. He has been an MP five times. Thrice, he was elected from the Almora constituency, in 1980, 1984 and 1989, while once from Haridwar in 2009. He was also a Rajya Sabha MP between 2002 and 2008. He was the Union minister of water resources in UPA-2 from 2012 to 2014 and won the legislative seat from Dharchula in 2014. Despite Rawat’s defeat in the 2017 assembly polls from two seats, Haridwar Rural and Kichha, the party’s central leadership gave him a ticket to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar seat. He was defeated in this election as well by BJP’s Ajay Bhat, by a margin of 3,39,096 votes. In the 2022 assembly polls, he lost the election from Lalkuan to BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht by 17,527 votes.