Following the inclusion of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) chargesheet in a money laundering case, Congress leader Pawan Khera implicitly criticised the Centre, claiming that such moves constitute the start of suspected conspiracies
Pawan Khera/ X
Following the inclusion of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) chargesheet in a money laundering case, Congress leader Pawan Khera implicitly criticised the Centre, claiming that such moves constitute the start of suspected conspiracies, stated a report in ANI.
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Khera told ANI, "Look at what they'll do ahead of the elections; it's just the beginning. They are not doing it for the first time; they do such conspiracies when elections approach. Let them do conspiracies."
According to the charge sheet, Priyanka Gandhi purchased and sold a five-acre agricultural land in Haryana from HL Pahwa, a Delhi-based real estate dealer, in 2006 and 2010, respectively. The same agent was linked to transactions with Priyanka Gandhi's husband, Robert Vadra, who had ties with fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, who is being investigated for multiple financial breaches.
The ED, according to the report, stated that Robert Vadra too purchased nearly 40.08 acres of land in Amipur village in 2005-05 from Pahwa and resold it to him in 2010. The ED, the ANI report further mentioned, said that Pahwa is the same person who also sold land to NRI businessman CC Thampi. The federal agency said that the larger case involved fugitive arms dealer Bhandari who is under probe for money laundering, violations of foreign exchange and black money laws, and the Official Secrets Act.
Reportedly, Bhandari fled to the United Kingdom in 2016, meanwhile, Thampi has been accused of facilitating Bhandari to hide the proceeds of crime with a British national of Indian descent, Sumit Chadha.
According to the ANI report, ED named Priyanka's husband and businessman Vadra in its previous chargesheet related to the case as an alleged aide of Thampi meanwhile, in a fresh charge sheet, the agency said that Pahwa was receiving cash out of the books for acquiring land and noted Vadra did not pay entire sale consideration to Pahwa.
The ED is still probing the incident. The ANI report cited thee charge sheet as stating, "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 has been downloaded from the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Whereas, an entity nemed Sky Lite Investment FZE in the UAE was incorporated on April 1, 2009, with CC Thampi as its sole shareholder.
The charge sheet further read, "During the course of investigation of Thampi and his Indian entities in the case bearing no. T-3/219/HQ/2015 being investigated under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), it has been found that Thampi purchased land worth 486 actes (approx.) from 2005 to 2008 in village Amipur in Haryana's Faridabad district through one HL Pahwa, Delhi NCR-based real estate agent."
The chargesheet mentioned Vadra's incorporation of Blve Breeze Trading Pvt Ltd in 2007 which was later converted to LLP. "The email ID of the said entity has always remained as bivebreezetrading@zmall.com ic. when it was a Private limited entity and later when it got converted into an LLP. The incorporation documents of the said entities were downloaded from the website of Ministry of Corporate Affairs. It is the same email id on which one Beena, an employee of CC Thampi in Dubai, used to communicate in connection with the property at 12 Bryanston Square, London," ANI report cited the charge sheet as saying.
"During the course of investigation in another PMLA case (bearing fo. ECIR/OG/HIU2018) being investigated against Robert Vadra, his entity Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd, and others, it has been found that one Mahesh Nagar, resident of Delhi NCR, represented various entities of Robert Vadre at the time of purchase and sale of various pieces of land in Delhi-NCR and Bikaner, Rajasthan," it pointed.
In a statement, the ED on Tuesday also mentioned Robert Vadra in connection with the purchase of a property in London that is part of the probe.
Detailing the association between Vadra and Thampi, the charge sheet states, "During the course of investigation in this case, it was found that a long and thick relationship exists between CC Thampi and Robert Vadra. Not only a personal or cordial bond but common and similar business interests are also found between them."
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.
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