The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that Robert Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, provided evasive responses during questioning regarding a 2008 land deal in Haryana. The ED claims Vadra placed blame on deceased associates and exerted undue influence on government officials.
Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the third consecutive day on Thursday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in a 2008 Haryana land deal. The ED has been investigating Vadra in connection with a land deal in Haryana's Manesar-Shikohpur, where a company he was a director of purchased land from Onkareshwar Properties and later sold it to DLF for a significantly higher price. The case has been embroiled in controversy since 2012, with allegations of corruption and nepotism surrounding the deal. The ED is expected to file chargesheets in all three cases being investigated against Vadra.
Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second consecutive day on Tuesday in connection with a 2008 land deal in Haryana linked to a money laundering case. Vadra, who was accompanied by his wife Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was questioned for about five hours and his statement was recorded by the ED. The session will resume on Wednesday. Vadra has termed the ED action "political vendetta." The probe against Vadra is linked to a land deal in Haryana's Manesar-Shikohpur, where a company named Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, of which Vadra was a director, purchased a 3.5-acre land in 2008. The company later sold the land to realty major DLF in 2012, which led to controversy after an IAS officer cancelled the mutation, deeming the transaction as violative of state consolidation Act and related procedures.
Vadra has been questioned multiple times by the federal probe agency in a different money laundering case.
No violation of rules or regulations were found in the transfer of land by businessman Robert Vadra's Skylight Hospitality to realty major DLF, the Haryana government has told the Punjab and Haryana high court in Chandigarh.
A statement from Gandhi's office came after a media house purportedly made a query to Robert Vadra asking whether a portion of the money he had received from the DLF was used by his wife to buy properties in Faridabad in Haryana.
"Undue favours" to builders, including Robert Vadra's Skylight Hospitality, by the Haryana government during the Congress regime has come under attack from the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The BJP had made the land deals a major poll issue in 2014, alleging that Vadra benefited through questionable land use permissions granted by the earlier Congress government in the state.
While giving approval to commercially develop land in Gurgaon, the Haryana government considered Robert Vadra's name and status as proof of his company's financial capacity.
Khattar noted that the court has not given permission to make the report of the commission public.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala claimed officials of Skylight Hospitality have visited ED numerous times and supplied them whatever documents required but they have not been able to find anything either against Vadra or his company or associates.
Even as the Vadras remain mum on the storm over their escalating assets, everyone, including security officers manning their gates, is avidly scouring newspaper pages for the latest scoop on Robert Vadra.
The first floor of 268, Sukhdev Vihar, a nondescript white and grey bungalow, houses the headquarters of at least three companies/businesses owned by Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Vadra, who had been renting the premises for seven-odd years, has recently bought the property.
The lawyers also gave detailed responses to specific issues raised in the PAG.
Robert Vadra's land deals in a village in Haryana have returned to haunt the Congress party, with whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka alleging that Vadra "falsified documents" for 3.53 acres of land in Gurgaon and "pocketed" a large premium on a commercial colony license.
The ED, it is understood, wants to grill Vadra about the operations of a firm -- Ms Skylight Hospitality Private Limited -- allegedly linked to him, which had purchased land in the area.
Vadra launched Skylight Hospitality four months after the DLF shares got listed, amid complaints of inadequate disclosure from investor associations and former business partner Kimsuk Krishna Sinha.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday took a dig at the Enforcement Directorate for giving out news regarding her husband Robert Vadra's alleged money laundering and connection involving a land deal in Bikaner district, Rajasthan.
Vadra and his mother Maureen had appeared before the ED on Tuesday.
Vadra's anticipatory bail application is likely to be heard by the court on Saturday.
The Rajasthan government had, in January 2015, cancelled the mutations (transfer of land) of 374.44 hectares of land, after the land department claimed to have found that the allotments were made in the names of "illegal private persons".
In a Facebook post Vadra has said that all allegations being levelled against him are baseless.
The IAS officer, who was posted for nearly 15 months in the sports and youth affairs department, headed by Minister Anil Vij, has been transferred over 45 times in his career so far.
Vadra posted the remark on Facebook as the Congress came out in defence of Vadra and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of practising political vendetta.
Khemka had been chargesheeted by the previous Hooda government, which had accused him of exceeding his jurisdiction by cancelling the mutation of the land deal over three years back between Skylight Hospitality, owned by Vadra, and DLF.
Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka who had cancelled the mutation of a land deal between a firm owned by Robert Vadra and realty major DLF, was promoted as Principal Secretary.
CBI is expected to issue summons to a number of other people and entities involved in the case in the near future
"If you have to take action, the morality should start from the top, right at the top. It is very easy to take action with the people who are downtrodden, but it takes courage and guts to call a bluff a bluff when it happens at the top," he told Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme.
Are they missing or have they been intentionally removed? A huge uproar has broken out after whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka has revealed that two important pages of a file pertaining to DLF-Robert Vadra land deal, containing notings, are missing.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into licences granted to several real estate developers, including the one with which Robert Vadra is associated, for developing colonies in Haryana.
The attack on a Dalit family in Faridabad days before the Khattar government's first anniversary suggests that nothing has changed.
The Enforcement Directorate has issued a notice to a firm linked to Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in connection with its probe into alleged money laundering in a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner district.
Vadra's interim protection from arrest was extended till April 1.
The ED said the firm, Ms Skylight Hospitality, has been given two weeks time to furnish financial statements and other documents of the firm to the investigating officer of the case.
Justice S N Dhingra Commission, which was set up to probe into grant of land licences to some companies including that of Robert Vadra's in Gurgaon during the Congress rule in Haryana, on Thursday sought six weeks more time to submit its report hours before the deadline was to end.
These builders had collected the taxes from prospective buyers but had failed to deposit them.
The Dhingra commission had probed alleged irregularities in the grant of land licences to a firm owned by Vadra and submitted its 182-page report to Khattar on August 31, 2016.
His mother Maureen was also questioned for some time.
The case relates to allegations of money laundering in the purchase of a London-based property -- located at 12, Bryanston Square -- worth 1.9 million pounds, which is allegedly owned by Vadra.
Special Judge Arvind Kumar also directed him not to tamper with the evidence or influence witnesses and join the investigation as and when called by the investigating officer.
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