JAIPUR: In a setback to businessman Robert Vadra, the husband of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a single-judge bench of the Rajasthan High Court on Thursday rejected his plea seeking a stay on his custodial interrogation in an Enforcement Directorate case into the dubious land deals in Bikaner by a company linked to him and his mother.
Justice P S Bhati also rejected Vadra’s plea for quashing the ED probe but extended an earlier stay on his arrest by two more weeks, to allow the petitioner to appeal before a two-judge bench. Vadra is the son-in-law of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and faces investigation over the purchase of land by Sky Light Hospitality, a partnership firm with his mother Maureen.
The ED had filed an enforcement case information report (ECIR, a document prepared by the ED when it begins an investigation) in 2015 based on a complaint by a local tehsildar regarding the purchase of 275 bighas of land in Kolayat area of Bikaner.
The land was bought in 2012 and the payment was allegedly made through conduits. The land was later sold at a huge profit, allegedly using forged documents. The Vadras moved the HC after the ED sent notice.