ED files chargesheet against Vadra in Gurugram land scam, seizes Rs 37-cr assets

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) against businessman Robert Vadra, his firm Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, and nine other individuals and entities in connection with a 2008 Gurugram land deal that has remained under scrutiny for several years.

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The ED’s complaint, filed before the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on Wednesday, follows a provisional attachment order issued a day earlier, under which 43 immovable properties worth Rs 37.64 crore linked to Vadra and his firms have been attached. The court is yet to take cognisance of the chargesheet.

Vadra had been questioned three times in the same case earlier this year, marking the first time a probe agency has named him in a chargesheet.

The case pertains to the alleged fraudulent purchase of 3.53 acres of land at Shikohpur village, Sector 83, Gurugram, by Skylight Hospitality from Onkareshwar Properties Pvt. Ltd. on February 12, 2008. Investigators claim the purchase involved false declarations and that Vadra used personal influence to obtain a commercial licence for the land.

Officials noted that the land’s mutation was processed within just 25 hours, raising suspicions of procedural irregularities. The ED has alleged that Skylight Hospitality later sold the same land to real estate major DLF Universal Ltd for Rs 58 crore, making an alleged windfall profit.

The Haryana Police registered an FIR in the matter in September 2018, prompting the ED to launch a money laundering probe to trace the source and destination of the alleged illicit gains.

In 2023, the Haryana Government informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that no rules were violated in the transfer of land from Skylight Hospitality to DLF. That case also involved former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and several others booked for cheating and other offences.

Vadra and his legal team have consistently denied any wrongdoing, calling the case politically motivated.