NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday filed a charge sheet against businessman Robert Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in a land deal in Shikohpur, Haryana, according to official sources.
This marks the first instance of any investigative agency formally naming the 56-year-old Vadra in a criminal prosecution complaint.
Sources said the ED has also attached 43 immovable properties valued at ₹37.64 crore, linked to Vadra and associated entities, including Sky Light Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.
The case revolves around a 3.5-acre land transaction in Gurugram’s Manesar-Shikohpur (now Sector 83), carried out in February 2008 by Skylight Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., where Vadra was formerly a director. The land was purchased from Onkareshwar Properties for ₹7.5 crore and later sold to real estate giant DLF in September 2012 for ₹58 crore, during the tenure of the Congress-led Haryana government headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The deal came under scrutiny in October 2012 when senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, then Director General of Land Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector General of Registration, cancelled the land’s mutation, citing violations of the state consolidation act and procedural norms.
Vadra has consistently denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations a “political vendetta” targeting him and his family, which includes former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and current Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.
The ED is also probing Vadra in two other cases — one involving UK-based arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and another related to a land deal in Bikaner, Rajasthan.
