Land deal case: ED files charge sheet against Robert Vadra, associates
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Thursday filed a charge sheet against Robert Vadra, the businessman husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in a land deal in Haryana’s Shikohpur, official sources said.
This is the first time that any probe agency has filed a prosecution complaint naming the 56-year-old Vadra in a criminal case.
The federal investigative agency, sources told PTI, has also attached 43 immovable properties worth Rs. 37.64 crore pertaining to Vadra and his linked entities like Sky Light Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. and others.
A provisional attachment order was issued by the agency on Wednesday under the PMLA, they said.
Sources said the charge sheet has been filed before the Rouse Avenue court here under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
A total of 11 entities, including Vadra, a firm linked to him named Sky Light Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., Satyanand Yajee and Kewal Singh Virk, their company Onkareshwar Properties Pvt. Ltd. and some others have been named as accused, the sources said.
The court is yet to take cognisance of the prosecution complaint.
Vadra has always denied wrongdoing and has said the case was a “political vendetta” against him and his family, which also comprises former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
The ED has claimed in the charge sheet that Vadra is accused of money laundering and has sought confiscation of the assets attached.
Vadra was questioned by the ED for three consecutive days in April as part of this probe.
The money laundering case stems from a September, 2018 filed FIR of the Gurugram Police which alleged fraudulent purchase of 3.53 acres of land situated in village Shikohpur in Sector 83 (Gurugram) by Vadra, through his entity SkyLight Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., from Onkareshwar Properties Pvt. Ltd. on 12.02.2008 through a “false” declaration at a cost of Rs 7.5 crore.
It is alleged that a commercial license was also obtained by Vadra on the said land through his “personal influence”.
A Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in power at that time. Four years later, in September 2012, the company (Sky Light) sold the land to realty major DLF for Rs 58 crore.
The land deal got embroiled in controversy in October 2012 after IAS officer Ashok Khemka, then posted as the director general of Land Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector-General of Registration of Haryana, cancelled the mutation of this, categorising the transaction as violative of the state consolidation act and some related procedures.
The ED is investigating Vadra in two other money laundering cases, including one linked to UK-based arms consultant and fugitive economic offender Sanjay Bhandari and a land deal in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.
PTI
News