Rawat Ties ED Summons to 'Electoral Anxiety' as UKSSSC Probe Widens

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat has tied his appearance before the Enforcement Directorate to the ruling BJP's political anxieties ahead of the 2027 Assembly election, saying the summons was driven less by the agency than by the climate surrounding the contest.

Rawat deposed before the ED in Dehradun on Saturday, a day after being summoned in connection with the investigation into the Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission's (UKSSSC) Gram Panchayat Vikas Adhikari examination.

In a post on X on Sunday, he described his experience with the agency as a mix of "some sweetness, some excitement, and also some disappointment," and questioned the use of investigative agencies in a politically charged setting.

"If governments operate with a spirit of revenge, how will the nation function?" he said, adding that it was "not ED, but the arrogance of power and electoral anxieties" that had brought him before the agency. He closed the post with a pointed "Thanks ED, thanks BJP."

The case

The ED's action follows searches carried out at several locations in Dehradun on September 10 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, tied to alleged large-scale irregularities in the 2016 examination.

One of the premises searched belonged to Chandan Singh Jeena, currently Rawat's personal assistant and formerly his Officer on Special Duty when Rawat was chief minister between 2014 and 2017. The agency said it seized or froze assets worth about Rs 1.28 crore, including Rs 32 lakh in unaccounted cash, roughly 200 grams of gold coins and chains, and 12 luxury wristwatches.

According to the agency, OMR answer sheets were allegedly diverted from the commission's secure custody, with partially filled sheets handed to a private computer agency where they were fraudulently completed or altered before being re-sealed. Illegal gratification was allegedly routed through middlemen. The investigation is ongoing.

Rawat has acknowledged Jeena's association with him but rejected the allegations. In an earlier statement, he called Jeena a "noble, humble, and hardworking individual" and said that if there were evidence of OMR tampering he would be ashamed of such conduct, while adding that he had "absolutely no faith" in the allegation.

Resignations and defence

The searches prompted Rawat to step down from two organisational positions in the Congress. On September 13, he announced he was quitting the executive of the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee and his role as a permanent invitee member of the Congress Working Committee, saying he did not want anything linked to him to weaken the party's campaign against corruption.

At the time, he framed the ED action as part of the political build-up to 2027, saying an attempt had been made to "knock at the house of one of my associates and craft a narrative" rather than approach him directly. He also defended the creation of the UKSSSC during his tenure, saying the commission was set up with the state's youth in mind, and claimed more than 42,000 government recruitments took place during his three years in office. If there had been an "error of judgement" in the appointment process, he said, he would seek the people's forgiveness.

Documents sought

On his appearance Saturday, Rawat said the agency sought documents relating to his family's assets. He said he had brought his wife's bank and post-office passbooks along with details of some of his own assets, but officials also asked for details of assets, including ancestral property, belonging to other family members.

He said this posed a practical difficulty because ancestral land in his village remains undivided, and compiling the land records would take time. According to Rawat, officials told him the remaining documents could be submitted within 20 to 25 days, and also sought papers relating to assets already declared in his income-tax returns. He said he told them his assets were exactly as declared.

The ED has not publicly alleged that Rawat himself was involved in the alleged manipulation of the recruitment examination. Its September 11 statement concerned the searches and the material recovered from premises linked to Jeena, while the wider investigation into the alleged irregularities continues.