How Jaipur farmers got caught in a multi-crore land scam with foreign links
Enforcement Directorate calls Sanganer villagers to record statements in a Rs 150-crore fraud that spans forged documents, shell companies, and foreign assets
Several farmers from villages in Jaipur's Sanganer area have been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on June 3, as the agency deepens its probe into one of Rajasthan's biggest land fraud cases. The farmers — who legally sold their ancestral agricultural land years ago and received full payment — now find themselves at the centre of a money-laundering investigation.
The ED will record their statements and collect original sale documents and banking transaction records. It is the latest move in a widening criminal investigation that has already led to raids across 12 locations in Jaipur, the seizure of unaccounted cash, and the uncovering of a financial trail that allegedly runs across borders.
In their own words
Kailash Chand, one of the summoned farmers, told news agency PTI that his family sold about 1.82 hectares of land in 2005 to Pinkcity Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and received the entire payment through banking channels.
"We had completed the sale legally and had no dealings with anyone else. Later we came to know that powers of attorney were misused and control over our land was taken without our consent. We have been summoned to submit documents on June 3," he told PTI.
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Another farmer, Madan Balai, has also been summoned. Both have been asked to present sale documents and banking records going back two decades.
How the scam worked
The farmers had sold their land legally, got paid through back channels, and moved on. What they did not know was that the Power of Attorney documents signed during those original transactions were never cancelled — and were later allegedly misused by a network of real estate operators to execute fresh, fraudulent deals without the farmers' knowledge.
According to reports, the same plot was sold again and again, to multiple buyers, using forged revenue records. Investors and corporate entities paid hundreds of crores for land they never truly received clear title to.
Meanwhile, on some of this disputed land, a residential colony — Shreenath Vihar — was quietly developed. Allegedly, approvals were obtained from the Jaipur Development Authority using false documents that concealed the fact that the land's ownership was actively contested in courts. People who bought homes there had no idea.
The man at the centre
The ED's probe is linked to the alleged activities of Gyan Chand Agarwal, a Jaipur-based realtor whom Rajasthan Police have declared a history-sheeter. He faces over 300 FIRs across the state — filed by defrauded investors, individual buyers, and corporate entities who collectively lost an estimated Rs 150 crore.
The scale of the operation suggests this was no opportunistic fraud. Over the 2010s, Agarwal's network allegedly built a systematic blueprint — collecting money from investors under the promise of premium land parcels, delivering nothing, and repeating the cycle with forged documents.
Where the money went
What began as a local land grab eventually grew into a money-laundering operation with international dimensions. When the ED raided 12 locations in September 2025, investigators recovered unaccounted cash alongside documents revealing that the proceeds of the fraud had been routed through shell companies to purchase foreign assets and fund mining operations abroad. Digital devices seized during the raids — hard disks, mobile phones — revealed what investigators described as large-scale tainted transactions.
Regulatory failure on full display
A Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) complaint filed in the case lays bare how the system was gamed at every level. The Shreenath Vihar project was registered with the Rajasthan Real Estate Regulatory Authority on the basis of false documents, with ongoing litigation over land title deliberately concealed. The complaint has sought cancellation of the project's registration and a forensic audit.
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The case also points to over 87 illegal colonies carved out across the Sanganer region on grabbed or disputed land — developed without proper No Objection Certificates — while regulatory bodies allegedly remained, at best, unaware, and at worst, compliant.
Where things stand
The investigation is now being pursued on three parallel tracks. The ED is handling the money-laundering angle under PMLA. The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group is running a separate criminal probe. And the Rajasthan Real Estate Regulatory Authority is examining the fraudulent project registrations.
The Rajasthan High Court, acting on a PIL filed by the NGO Public Against Corruption, has already ordered the state government to clear the illegal encroachments — explicitly barring any attempt to regularise them.
The summoning of farmers on June 3 is described as the final evidentiary phase of the probe — two decades of tampered land records, forged surrender deeds, and manipulated powers of attorney are now being methodically examined.