ED summons Robert Vadra in Shikohpur land deal probe

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in a probe pertaining to a land deal in Shikohpur village in Gurugram, people familiar with the development said.

Vadra had been issued summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and has been asked to appear before the federal agency on Tuesday.

Officials said this is the first time Vadra has been summoned in the case, which was taken up by the financial crimes probe agency based on a First information Report (FIR) filed by the Haryana police in 2018.

The case pertains to a land deal, where, in February 2008, Vadra’s firm Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd bought a piece of the 3.5-acre land in Shikohpur in Gurugram from Onkareshwar Properties at ₹7.5 crore.

It is alleged that the mutation was done within 25 hours.

“We have summoned Robert Vadra in the Shikohpur land deal probe to know about the financial transaction,” an ED official said.

HT was the first to report in December 2023 about a charge sheet filed in November 2023 against fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, and British national Sumit Chadha in a separate probe. The ED had then claimed that Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra bought several acres of land in Haryana through a Delhi based real estate agent, who also sold land to NRI businessman CC Thampi.

To be sure, the couple has not been named as accused in this ED charge sheet and the land purchase transactions were mentioned in the charge sheet to explain the link between Vadra and Thampi.

Thampi, arrested in January 2020, had told ED that he knew Vadra for over 10 years and that he was introduced to the latter by Mr Madhavan, the personal assistant of Sonia Gandhi, and that they met several times during Vadra’s visit to the UAE as well as in Delhi.

The agency claims that Thampi had purchased 486 acres land from 2005 to 2008 in Village Amipur in Faridabad, Haryana, through NCR based agent HL Pahwa.

“It is imperative to mention that Robert Vadra also purchased 3 pieces of land measuring 334 kanals (40.08 acres) in Amipur from HL Pahwa from 2005-2006 and sold the same land to Pahwa in December 2010. Further, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, wife of Robert Vadra, also purchased agricultural land measuring 40 kanal (05 acres) in village Amipur from Pahwa in April 2006 and sold the same land to Pahwa in February 2010,” the charge sheet, reveiwed by HT, stated.

Pahwa, according to ED, 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 sale consideration to Pahwa, the agency said, adding that “investigation in this regard is still ongoing”.

In its probe against Bhandari, ED has repeatedly claimed since 2020 that a property — 12 Ellorton House, Bryanston Square in London worth 1.9 million pounds — belongs to Vadra whereas Thampi, the Dubai-based controller of Sky Lite Investments FZE and owner of the Holiday Group, played a crucial role in its purchase.

ED has claimed Sanjay Bhandari acquired it in December 2009 and that it was renovated on the direction of Robert Vadra and funds were provided by him.

“It’s a free for all in this country…truth has no place. Witch-hunt continues for almost a decade. Another decade more and we will be referring to what happened in 2010, 2011, 2012 and on and on,” Vadra had said.

HT reached out to Vadra on Tuesday regarding the summons.