ED quizzes Vadra in 2008 land deal case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday questioned Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, in connection with a probe related to a 2008 land deal in Gurugram’s Shikohpur.

The agency issued summons to Vadra for questioning at its headquarters in Delhi. “We summoned Vadra in Shikohpur land deal probe to know about the financial transactions and other details”, said an officer, who didn’t want to be named. He was earlier asked to appear before the agency on April 8, but, sought a later date.

Officials said Vadra was questioned for first time in the case that was taken up by the financial crimes probe agency based on Haryana Police’s First information Report (FIR) filed in 2018.

Vadra walked down from his residence at Sujan Singh Park to the ED headquarters on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road, around 1.5km away, and entered the building around 11am for questioning. He left the office around 6.30pm. The 56-year-old has been summoned for questioning on Wednesday.

Terming the action political vendetta, Vadra told reporters outside the ED office: “This is nothing but a political vendetta. Whenever I speak for minorities, they try to stop me, crush us... they tried to stop Rahul (Gandhi) in Parliament too. This is misuse of agencies, and this is a political vendetta. I will cooperate with them like in the past.”

He was allowed to leave for lunch around 1.30pm and returned for questioning around 2.20 pm, according to the officer cited above.

The case pertains to a land deal dating back to February 2008, when Vadra’s firm Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd bought a 3.53 acre plot of land in Shikohpur in Gurugram from Onkareshwar Properties for ₹7.5 crore. A Congress government led by chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in power that time.

Four years later, in September 2012, the company sold this 3.53-acre land to realty major DLF for ₹58 crore. The land deal became controversial in October 2012 after IAS officer Ashok Khemka, then posted as the director general of Land Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector-General of Registration of Haryana, flagged alleged irregularities in the transaction.

ED has previously questioned Vadra several times in other probes, related to purchase of land or other properties.

As exclusively reported by HT, in a charge sheet filed in November 2023 against fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and British national Sumit Chadha in a separate probe, ED 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 was not named as accused in that charge sheet and the land purchase transactions were mentioned in the charge sheet to explain the link between Vadra and Thampi.