Trouble for Robert Vadra in Shikohpur land deal
A Delhi court on Wednesday took cognisance of an Enforcement Directorate chargesheet against businessman Robert Vadra in a money laundering case linked to a land deal in Haryana’s Shikohpur.
Special Judge Sushant Changotra directed Vadra and the other accused in the case to appear before it on May 16.
A reasoned order is awaited.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed the chargesheet against Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, last July.
It was the first time that any probe agency filed a chargesheet against 57-year-old Vadra in a criminal case. In April 2025, the ED had questioned Vadra for three consecutive days.
The probe against Vadra is linked to a land deal at Manesar-Shikohpur (now Sector 83) in Haryana’s Gurugram district.
The deal was done in February 2008 by a company named Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, where Vadra was a director earlier, under which it purchased a 3.5-acre land in Shikohpur from Onkareshwar Properties for Rs 7.5 crore.
At the time, Haryana was ruled by the Congress led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Four years later, in September 2012, the company sold the land to realty major DLF for Rs 58 crore.
The deal got embroiled in controversy in October 2012 after IAS officer Ashok Khemka, then posted as director general of land consolidation and land records-cum-inspector-general of registration, cancelled the mutation after categorising the transaction as violative of the state consolidation act and some related procedures.
Vadra has been denying any wrongdoing, calling the case a “political vendetta” against him and his family, including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.
The ED is also investigating Vadra in two other cases, including one against UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari, and a land deal in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.
