ED files charges against Vadra, seizes ₹37cr assets

LAND DEAL CASE

- Neeraj Chauhan

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, the husband of Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in connection with its money laundering probe in a 3.53-acre land deal in Gurugram’s Shikohpur in 2008, people familiar with the development said on Thursday.

The federal agency has also attached 43 properties worth ₹37.64 crore belonging to Vadra and his companies.

This is the first ever charge sheet against Vadra by the agency. Officials said Vadra has been charged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act along with 10 others - including his firm - Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd (SLHPL), Satyanand Yajee and Kewal Singh Virk of Onkareshwar Properties Pvt Ltd and others as there was sufficient prosecutable evidence to prove the money laundering. He was questioned for three days in the case in April this year.

The probe pertains to a land deal, where, in February 2008, Vadra’s firm SLHPL bought a piece of 3.53 acre land in Shikohpur in Gurugram from Onkareshwar Properties for which ₹7.5 crore was paid. A Congress government led by chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in power that time.

It is alleged that Vadra's two firms had ₹1 lakh each in their bank accounts when they purchased the 3.53acre land worth ₹7.5 crore in 2008.