New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has found that a sale deed for a parcel of land in Gurugram between businessman Robert Vadra’s firm, Sky Light Hospitality, and Omkareshwar Properties was executed without the payment of the Rs 7.5 crore consideration, ThePrint has learnt. This fresh finding provided the impetus for the money laundering investigation against Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, and led to him being summoned last week.
Sources aware of the case details said that Sky Light Hospitality paid Omkareshwar Properties around Rs 15 crore for the land parcel in question, which is suspected to have been received from DLF. However, the sale deed at Rs 7.5 crore between Sky Light Hospitality and Omkareshwar Properties was executed in February 2008 before payment. It was eventually sold to DLF at Rs 58 crore in 2012.
“Based on this new finding, Haryana Police were approached to add section 423 of the Indian Penal Code into the predicate offence registered in September 2018,” an officer aware of the case details told ThePrint. “The predicate agency (Haryana Police) recently confirmed to the Directorate about adding the particular section that renews the investigation.”
Section 423 of IPC deals with the dishonest or fraudulent execution of a deed of transfer containing a false statement of consideration.
This week, Vadra appeared before ED officials on three consecutive days between Tuesday and Thursday in connection with the money laundering probe, a week after refusing to honour the agency’s 8 April summons.
Outside the ED headquarters in Delhi, Vadra told media persons Tuesday that the agency summoned him because he recently spoke out on minority rights. He also questioned the ED’s timing, noting that it was immediately after he said he would enter active politics. Vadra is the husband of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
ED officials, however, said that Vadra was summoned only after following due process, adding that it had substantial evidence and noting that there was an update in the predicate offence.
“Vadra was summoned for questioning only after these new developments. It was a backdated land deal, executed without payment for the land. The bank accounts of Vadra’s firms establish their inability to pay for the transaction, and we have not found a lead on payment through cash,” another officer confirmed to ThePrint.
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Questions over approval of commercial license
ThePrint previously reported that the ED had initiated a money laundering investigation in January 2019 based on an FIR filed by Haryana Police in September 2018 on the complaint of one Surender Sharma.
The FIR, filed at Kherki Daula police station, booked Vadra, his firm, Skylight Hospitality, DLF, and the then Haryana chief minister, Congress’s Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The FIR said that Skylight Hospitality purchased the 3.5-acre land from Omkareshwar Properties at Rs 7.5 crore in 2008. It was sold to DLF Universal Limited, a DLF subsidiary, at Rs 58 crore in September 2012.
Sharma further alleged that Skylight Hospitality could buy the land due to Hooda’s influence, securing a commercial license for the land to develop a residential colony on the parcel. At the time, Hooda also held the town and country planning department (DTCP) portfolio.
Providing further impetus into the case against Vadra, ED now also claims that Omkareshwar Properties requested a commercial license for the land parcel in question, but it was denied by the Hooda-led DTCP. However, the license was approved within days after Vadra’s firm applied for it.
“The fact that there were not enough balances in the bank accounts of Vadra’s firms establishes their financial capabilities in developing commercial properties at the land parcel. It appears to have been given a commercial license due to the influence of Vadra on the Hooda government,” an official said, requesting anonymity.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
