ED files chargesheet against Robert Vadra in Shikohpur land deal case

Robert Vadra

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against businessman Robert Vadra, the husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in connection with Shikohpur land case. The chargesheet also includes the names of several other individuals as well as companies.

The chargesheet mentions that Robert Vadra's company, Skylight Hospitality, bought a land parcel of 3.53 acres for Rs 7.5 crore in the year 2008, CNN-News18 reported. The same piece of land was later sold for Rs 58 crore without the project being completed.

The agency questioned Vadra, the brother-in law of leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, for over 18 hours in connection with the case. Vadra has been named as an accused in the chargesheet.

Apart from Vadra, several other Congress leaders from Haryana were also questioned  -- with their statements reportedly being mentioned in the chargesheet.

The land deal got into 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.

Haryana Police had filed an FIR to probe this deal in 2018.

An year later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a corruption case, accusing certain public officials in Haryana, along with other individuals, of defrauding landowners through a criminal conspiracy. Later, the ED initiated a money laundering case linked to these alleged illicit gains.