Businessman Robert Vadra appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday after being summoned for questioning in connection with a money laundering case linked to a land deal in Shikohpur, Haryana.
Vadra, 56, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, was earlier summoned by the agency on April 8 but he did not appear, following which a second summons was issued. “Recently, we got some new facts during our investigation and want to confront him with these facts. Once he appears before the ED, the agency will record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),” a source said.
Vadra said he is hopeful for a resolution. “Nobody is evading anything. I am here today… I am expecting a conclusion. I am waiting for a conclusion,” he told reporters outside the ED office.
Criticising the move as “political vendetta’, Vadra claimed that attempts were made to silence him and his brother-in-law and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. “When I speak in favour of the country, I am stopped, Rahul is stopped from speaking in the Parliament. BJP is doing it. This is political vendetta,” he said, adding, “People love me and want me to join politics… When I express my willingness to join politics, they bring up old issues to bring me down and divert from the real issues…”
Before going to the ED office, Vadra said, “They are misusing all these agencies… I don’t have to hide anything, whatever they will ask, I’ll give answers to all the questions.”
In 2018, an FIR was registered against Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was the chief minister of Haryana from 2005 to 2014, as well as against Vadra, and real estate companies DLF and Onkareshwar Properties for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud, and forgery, and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Hooda, Vadra, and the Congress party have always denied any wrongdoing in this regard.
In February 2008, Skylight Hospitality, which Vadra had launched in 2007 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh, bought about 3.5 acres of land in Manesar-Shikohpur in Gurgaon from Onkareshwar Properties for Rs 7.5 crore. The plot was mutated in favour of Skylight the next day, and the title of the land was reportedly transferred to Vadra within 24 hours of the purchase. This process usually takes at least three months.
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A month later, the Haryana government, which was then headed by Hooda, gave Skylight Hospitality permission to develop a housing project on most of the land. This led to an immediate increase in the value of the land. In June 2008, DLF agreed to buy the plot for Rs 58 crore, which meant that in just a few months, the value of Vadra’s property had increased by close to 700 per cent. The payment was made to Vadra in instalments, and it was only in 2012 that the mutation transferring the colony licence on the land was transferred to DLF.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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