CHANDIGARH: 56-year old Robert Vadra, businessman and husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate today and was questioned for more than five hours.
He was summoned and questioned by the central agency in connection with an alleged money laundering case linked to irregularities in a 2007-08 land deal made by his company in Haryana.
Sources said that this was the second summons issued to Vadra this month by the Enforcement Directorate. He was first summoned in this case on April 8, but he did not depose.
Vadra has been summoned by the agency again on Wenesday to continue the questioning, sources said.
An official on condition of anonymity said, "Vadra was asked to appear for questioning as the ED is looking into the alleged financial irregularities concerning his firm, Skylight Hospitality. We will record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).’’
Vadra walked from his residence at Sujan Singh Park in central Delhi to the Enforcement Directorate headquarters on APJ Abdul Kalam Road, a two-kilometre stretch. Speaking to the media, Vadra said he would cooperate with the investigation and answer all questions. However, he alleged that the summons was part of a political vendetta aimed to silence him and his brother-in-law, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
"Whenever I will speak up for people and make them heard, they will try to suppress me. I have always given all answers and continue to do so. The BJP is misusing the investigative agencies and in last 20 years nothing has been found,’’ he said.
The investigation revolves around a February 2008 land deal in which Robert Vadra’s company, Skylight Hospitality, purchased a 3.5-acre plot in Shikohpur, Gurugram, from Onkareshwar Properties for Rs 7.5 crore. It is alleged that the land was later sold to real estate giant DLF for Rs 58 crore. The deal came under scrutiny after Haryana cadre IAS officer Ashok Khemka cancelled the land's mutation the official process of recording the property transfer in October 2012.
The central agency suspects that the windfall gains are nothing but a part of a money laundering scheme. It is alleged that the mutation of this land was done within hours. The Haryana Police had filed a case in this deal in 2018.
The BJP raked up the issue in the run-up to the 2014 Haryana assembly elections, which it went on to win. It released a six-page booklet titled "Damad Shree” and referred to Vadra’s other allegedly unscrupulous deals in Rajasthan and Haryana.
The ED had filed a chargesheet in December 2023 against UAE-based NRI businessman C C Thampi, who is allegedly linked to Vadra, and Sumit Chadha, a relative of UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari, saying it was investigating the purchase of three plots of land in Haryana during 2005-06 by Vadra from a real estate agent along with a land deal made by his wife Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Neither Vadra or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were named as accused in the chargesheet.
Thampi, the ED had said, had purchased about 486 acres of land between 2005 and 2008 in Amirpur village in Faridabad in Haryana through H L Pahwa, a Delhi-NCR based real estate agent.
"It is imperative to mention that Robert Vadra also purchased three pieces of land measuring 334 kanals (40.08 acres) in Amirpur from H L Pahwa from 2005-2006 and sold the same land to H L Pahwa in December 2010," it said in the chargesheet "Further, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wife of Robert Vadra also purchased agricultural land measuring 40 kanal (05 acres) in village Amirpur, district Faridabad, Haryana, from H L Pahwa in April 2006 and sold the same land to H L Pahwa in February 2010," the ED stated.
It said that "Pahwa was receiving cash out of the books for the purpose of acquisition of land".
"It was also noticed that Robert Vadra did not pay the entire consideration to Pahwa. The investigation in this regard is still ongoing," the ED said.