Harish Rawat Appears Before ED in 2016 VPDO Recruitment Case

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat appeared before the Enforcement Directorate at its Dehradun office on Saturday for questioning in a case linked to alleged irregularities in a 2016 recruitment examination.

Mr. Rawat entered the office wearing a photograph of his mother around his neck. Ahead of the questioning, he shared a video saying he had received an ED notice two days earlier summoning him.

The case concerns alleged irregularities in the 2016 Village Panchayat Development Officer recruitment examination conducted by the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission.

As part of the investigation, the ED carried out searches at several locations in Dehradun on September 10. These included the residence of Chandan Singh Jeena, Mr. Rawat's current personal assistant, who had also served as his Officer on Special Duty when he was chief minister.

In his video, Mr. Rawat said the agency had sought a large number of documents from him. The request covered information about his past Income Tax Returns and details of assets held by him and his family members.

He said the notice also sought documents concerning his family, though he was unsure which members fell within the definition of "family". He noted that his household was large and that his daughters were married, which made it difficult to collect old documents for every member.

Mr. Rawat added that he had not informed anyone in advance about his visit to the ED.

On September 12, he announced his decision to step down from all party posts after the Enforcement Directorate recovered cash and jewellery from his personal assistant's house.