The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday filed a chargesheet against businessman Robert Vadra in Shikhopur land deal case. The agency also attached 43 properties worth over Rs 36 crore linked to Vadra and his entities.
The case dates to 2018 when an FIR was registered against Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana CM from 2005 to 2014, as well as against Vadra and real estate companies DLF and Onkareshwar Properties on charges of alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud and forgery under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
It is alleged that in February 2008, Skylight Hospitality, which Vadra, the husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, had launched in 2007 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh, bought about 3.5 acres in Manesar-Shikohpur 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.
It is alleged that a month later, the Haryana government, then headed by Hooda, gave Skylight Hospitality permission to develop a housing project on most of the land. This led to a sudden increase in land value. In June 2008, DLF agreed to buy the plot for Rs 58 crore that allegedly resulted in windfall gains for Vadra.
The land deal got embroiled in controversy 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, cancelled the mutation of this categorising the transaction as violative of state consolidation act and some related procedures.
Vadra has denied wrongdoing and has said the case was a "political vendetta" against him and his family that comprises former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
The ED is investigating Vadra in two other cases including one against UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari and a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner
The case dates to 2018 when an FIR was registered against Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana CM from 2005 to 2014, as well as against Vadra and real estate companies DLF and Onkareshwar Properties on charges of alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud and forgery under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
It is alleged that in February 2008, Skylight Hospitality, which Vadra, the husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, had launched in 2007 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh, bought about 3.5 acres in Manesar-Shikohpur 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.
It is alleged that a month later, the Haryana government, then headed by Hooda, gave Skylight Hospitality permission to develop a housing project on most of the land. This led to a sudden increase in land value. In June 2008, DLF agreed to buy the plot for Rs 58 crore that allegedly resulted in windfall gains for Vadra.
The land deal got embroiled in controversy 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, cancelled the mutation of this categorising the transaction as violative of state consolidation act and some related procedures.
Vadra has denied wrongdoing and has said the case was a "political vendetta" against him and his family that comprises former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
The ED is investigating Vadra in two other cases including one against UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari and a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner
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