ED charge sheet against Vadra, others in Shikohpur land deal case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a charge sheet against Robert Vadra, the businessman husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a money laundering case linked to a land deal in Haryana's Shikohpur, official sources said on Thursday.

This is the first time that any probe agency has filed a prosecution complaint against 56-year-old Vadra in a criminal case.

Sources said the charge sheet has been filed against Vadra and some others before a local court here under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He was questioned by the federal investigative agency for three consecutive days in April.

The probe against Vadra is linked to the land deal in Haryana's Manesar-Shikohpur (now sector 83) in Gurugram. The deal of February 2008 was done by a company named Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, where Vadra was a director earlier, as it purchased a 3.5 acre of land in Shikohpur from Onkareshwar Properties at a price of Rs 7.5 crore.

A Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in power at that time. Four years later, in September 2012, the company sold the land to realty major DLF for Rs 58 crore.

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 always 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.