GURGAON: Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday interrogated Robert Vadra, the businessman-husband of Congress general secretary and LS MP Priyanka Gandhi at its headquarters for six hours in connection with a controversial land deal his company Skylight Hospitality had made in 2008 for Rs 7.5 crore.
Vadra, who had missed his first summons on April 8, walked into ED office at 11am and was quizzed over two sessions with a lunch break on his association with the land deal which gave him a handsome return of Rs 50 crore in a matter of a few months. His questioning will continue on Wednesday.
This is a new case being investigated against Vadra with two other money laundering probes still in progress related to other land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan. In the present case, Vadra’s firm, Skylight Hospitality, bought 3.5 acre in Shikohpur ( Haryana) for Rs 7.5 crore in 2008 from Onkareshwar Properties. The then Congress govt in state under the then CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda granted commercial licences for 2.7 acre shortly afterwards. Four months later, the land was sold to DLF for almost eight times the rate – Rs 58 crore – generating a profit of over Rs 50 crore. Vadra slammed ED’s move as an ‘attempt to thwart his entry into politics and stop him from raising people’s issues’.
Action against Vadra came soon after ED issued notices to take possession of over Rs 750 crore worth of land and buildings of Young Indian-controlled Associated Journals Ltd in the National Herald money laundering case. This was followed by the agency filing a chargesheet in the National Herald case where it has made seven individuals and entities as accused, including ex-Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The court has fixed April 25 as the date of next hearing in order to take cognisance of the chargesheet.
On his way to ED office, Vadra said action against him was “politically motivated”. “I am not going to be intimidated by this. They can ask me as many questions. I will answer them all. I have nothing to hide,” he said, adding, “Whenever I try to raise people’s voice or talk of entering politics, this govt uses these agencies to suppress me. I have appeared over 20 times before, submitted 23,000 documents, and sat for 15-hour sessions. Yet, they keep demanding more.”
Vadra’s land deal in Shikohpur gained national attention in 2012 when IAS officer Ashok Khemka, then director of land registration in Haryana, cancelled the land mutation, citing procedural irregularities. The state transferred Khemka within hours, raising eyebrows. But before relinquishing charge, Khemka submitted a report, setting aside the mutation and questioning the authority of the official who had sanctioned it. In 2013, a three-member IAS panel formed by the then Hooda govt gave a clean chit to both Vadra and DLF.
Subsequent BJP govt, which assumed office in 2014, formed Justice Dhingra Commission, which submitted a confidential report. Hooda moved HC against formation of the commission in 2016. Two years later, Haryana police filed an FIR against Vadra, Hooda, DLF & Onkareshwar Properties, charging them with cheating, criminal conspiracy & forgery. ED initiated a probe under PMLA.
