Priyanka Gandhi's name in ED's PMLA case charge-sheet

New Delhi: For the first time, the Enforcement Directorate has named AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in its recently-filed chargesheet over the alleged purchase and sale of five acres of land in Haryana while the Congress Party cried foul over the agency’s action.

The agency, in its chargesheet, mentioned her role in purchasing a tract of agricultural land measuring 40 kanal (five acres) in Haryana’s Faridabad from a Delhi-based real estate agent, H.L. Pahwa, in 2006 and sold the same land to him in February 2010. Her husband, businessman Robert Vadra, is also named in this case, but neither of them is listed as an “accused”.

The purchase of three plots of land in Haryana in 2005-06 by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra from a real estate agent is being probed along with a land deal by his wife Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Central agency claimed in a money-laundering case chargesheet.

The agency filed the chargesheet, also known as a prosecution complaint, in November before a Delhi court against UAE-based NRI businessman C.C. Thampi, who is allegedly linked to Robert Vadra, and Sumit Chadha, a relative of alleged middleman Sanjay Bhandari.

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi

took cognisance of this chargesheet on December 22 and listed the matter for the next hearing on January 29, 2024.

According to ED officials, Bhandari fled to the UK in 2016, but the UK government approved his extradition to India in January this year, acting on a legal request made by the ED and the CBI.

The two Central agencies are probing charges of money-laundering and tax evasion against the alleged middleman for holding alleged

undisclosed assets abroad.

In the chargesheet, the ED claims that it came across the land purchase and sale transactions of the Vadras after it registered a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case against 67-year-old Mr Thampi in 2015.

A “long and thick relationship” existed between Robert Vadra and Mr Thampi, the agency said. Robert Vadra has been questioned by the ED in this case in the past and he had denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Thampi, the ED said, had purchased about 486 acres of land between 2005 and 2008 in Amirpur village in Haryana's Faridabad district through H.L. Pahwa, a real estate agent based in Delhi-NCR. “It is imperative to mention that Robert Vadra also purchased three

pieces of land measuring 334 kanals (40.08 acres) in Amirpur from H.L. Pahwa from 2005-2006 and sold the same land to H.L. Pahwa in December 2010,” it said in the chargesheet.

“Further, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, wife of Robert Vadra, also purchased

agricultural land measuring 40 kanal (five acres) in village Amirpur,

district Faridabad, Haryana, from H.L. Pahwa in April 2006 and sold

the same land to H.L. Pahwa in February 2010,” the ED stated.

It also said “Pahwa was receiving cash out of the books for the purpose

of acquisition of land”. “It was also noticed that Robert Vadra did not pay the entire consideration to Pahwa. The investigation in this regard is still ongoing,” the ED said.

Mr Thampi was arrested in this case in January 2020. The ED in a recent press statement alleged that he was a “close associate” of Robert Vadra. Mr Thampi is at present out on bail.

The ED also stated in the chargesheet that Mr Thampi, in a statement

recorded before the agency in January 2020, said he purchased a Land

Cruiser car from Robert Vadra “more than 10 years ago”, for which he made payments to the businessman through cheques from his NRE accounts in India. It also said that Mr Thampi has not submitted any documents or details to explain a bank transaction of Rs 10 lakhs with Robert Vadra in 2007.

“Thus, from the above, it is quite evident that Robert Vadra has a close association with C.C. Thampi,” it said.

In June 2019, Mr Thampi told the ED he knew Robert Vadra for more than 10 years and the businessman was “initially introduced” to him by Mr Madhavan, who was private assistant to Mrs Sonia Gandhi. He told the agency that he met Robert Vadra a “number of times in the lounge of Taj Mansingh Hotel and some restaurants in Delhi and also in Dubai.”

Mr Thampi, according to the ED, also told agency officials that Robert Vadra “stayed at the property 12 Bryanston Square, London, three-four times”.

The Central agency, in a press statement released earlier this week, had said Robert Vadra “renovated and stayed” at this London house, which is one of the “proceeds of crime” in the money-laundering case investigated against Mr Bhandari. The ED filed a criminal case against Mr Bhandari and others in February 2017.

Crying foul at the ED’s move, the Congress Party on Thursday hit out at the BJP, alleging that it was a conspiracy by the ruling party. “Look at what they’ll do ahead of elections, it’s just the beginning. They are not doing it for the first time, they hatch such conspiracies when elections approach. Let them hatch conspiracies,” Congress leader Pawan Khera said.