Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been named for the first time in the Enforcement Directorate chargesheet filed against NRI businessman CC Thampi and Sumit Chadha, a British national. An investigation revealed that apart from Robert Vadra and Thampi, Priyanka Gandhi had also purchased land in Faridabad, officials said.
However, Priyanka Gandhi and Robert Vadra have not been named as an accused.
According to officials, Robert Vadra, between 2006 and 2006, had purchased about 40.8 acres of land in Amipur village of Faridabad through property dealer HL Pahwa (close to Thampi), which was sold back to Pahwa in December 2010.
Similarly, a house was purchased in the name of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the same Amipur village in April 2006, which was sold back to Pahwa in February 2010.
According to sources, Pahwa is very close to Thampi. Pahwa had made Thumpi purchase the land in the same Amipur village..
Priyanka Gandhi's name came to light during the investigation into the financial connection between Thampi and Vadra.
What did the ED investigation reveal?
The agent is the same person who also sold land to NRI businessman CC Thampi. The larger case involves fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, who is under investigation by multiple agencies for money-laundering, violation of foreign exchange and black money laws, and the Official Secrets Act. He fled India for the UK in 2016. Thampi has been accused of facilitating Bhandari to hide proceeds of crime, along with Sumit Chadha, a British national.
In the fresh charge-sheet, it is mentioned that 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 sale consideration to Pahwa."
The ED investigation in this regard is still ongoing. However, the copy of "the ledger accounts in the books of Pahwa reflecting the above mentioned transactions were taken on record vide letter dated November 17, 2023."
"It is submitted that Robert Vadra incorporated entities with the names of Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd and Sky Light Realty Pvt Ltd in India on November 1, 2007 and November 16, 2007 respectively. The same have been downloaded from the website of Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Whereas, an entity nemed Sky Lite Investment FZE in UAE was incorporated on April 1, 2009 with CC Thampi as its sole shareholder," mentions the charge-sheet.
"During the course of investigation of Thampi and his Indian eatities in the case bearing no. T-3/219/HQ/2015 being investigation under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) it has been found that Thampi purchased land 486 actes (approx.) from 2005 to 2008 in village Amipur in Haryana's Faridabed district through one HL Pahwa, Delhi NCR based real estate agent."
Thampi, arrested in January 2020, ostensibly told ED that he knew Vadra for over 10 years and that they met several times during Vadra's visits to the UAE as well as in Delhi
