NEW DELHI: Income tax officials questioned Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on Monday at his Delhi office in a benami properties case related to a land deal in Bikaner, Rajasthan.
According to sources, Vadra was questioned about the land purchased by one Mahesh Nagar, brother of former Congress MLA from Haryana Lalit Nagar, on behalf of his company. Mahesh Nagar was the authorised representative of Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd and had allegedly purchased four land parcels which were later sold off at huge margins to Allegeny Finlease Pvt Ltd.
The questioning of Priyanka Gandhi's spouse marks a significant turn in the investigations into his deals in Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi when UPA was in power.
In the same land deal case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier attached Vadra’s Delhi properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED in its attachment order had claimed that Sky Light Hospitality had purchased 275 bigha (69.55 hectare) fraudulently for Rs 72 lakh and sold the same for Rs 5.15 crore to Allegeny Finlease (P) Ltd and illegally generated profit of Rs 4.43 crore.
In the attachment order, ED had also accused four others of having generated profit of Rs 18.59 lakh in sale of land. Both Vadra and his mother were directors in the Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd and accused in the case.
The ED has shared Nagar’s recorded statements with the I-T investigating officers, sources said. These statements would be crucial in I-T officials questioning Vadra, sources said. The land in question in Bikaner was meant for rehabilitation of displaced persons of the Mahajan Field Firing Range and Nagar has told the investigators circumstances under which they were acquired by allegedly forging documents and source of funds used to purchase them.
Rajasthan police had earlier filed three chargesheets for the offence of grabbing government land using forged documents. The ED had registered a money laundering case under the PMLA based on the FIRs of the Rajasthan police.
Vadra is facing other probes also.
In June last year, the ED filed a chargesheet against fugitive defence dealer Sanjay Bhandari in which it had also named Vadra as one of the accused to be probed in connection with alleged payoffs received in different defence deals.
The income tax is also probing Bhandari and Vadra for alleged benami assets purchased in London from the proceeds of the alleged payoffs.