Vadra Grilled for Third Day by ED in Haryana Land Deal Investigation
Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of Rahul Gandhi, the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a third consecutive day on Thursday. The 56-year-old businessman is under scrutiny in a money laundering investigation tied to alleged irregularities in a 2008 land deal in Haryana.
Officials confirmed that Vadra, who arrived at the ED’s central Delhi office shortly after 11 am with his wife, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Wayanad MP, has been questioned for over ten hours across the past two days. The ongoing probe, conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), continued on Thursday as the ED recorded his statement.
Vadra has described the ED’s actions as a “political vendetta” targeting him and his family. He emphasized his cooperation with the agency, having provided thousands of pages of documents, and called for resolution in cases that date back nearly two decades.
The investigation centers on a 2008 land transaction in Haryana’s Manesar-Shikohpur area (now Sector 83, Gurugram). Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, a company previously directed by Vadra, purchased 3.5 acres of land from Onkareshwar Properties for Rs 7.5 crore during a Congress-led government under Bhupinder Singh Hooda. In 2012, the same land was sold to DLF for Rs 58 crore.
The deal sparked controversy in October 2012 when IAS officer Ashok Khemka, then director general of Land Consolidation and Land Records in Haryana, canceled the land’s mutation, citing violations of the state’s consolidation laws and related procedures. At the time, the opposition BJP labeled the transaction as emblematic of “corruption” and “nepotism,” pointing to Vadra’s ties to the Congress party’s leadership.
In 2018, Haryana Police registered an FIR to investigate the deal. Vadra has faced multiple rounds of questioning by the ED in this and two other money laundering cases. Sources told that the agency is preparing to file chargesheets in all three cases soon.