Tracking the Trail: Robert Vadra’s ED Interrogation and the Land Scam Timeline
Tracking the Trail
Tracking the Trail: The Economic Directorate’s investigation into a money laundering case connected to a land sale in Shikohpur, Haryana, is putting pressure on businessman Robert Vadra, son-in-law of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The issue concerns Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality’s acquisition of land in Shikohpur, Haryana’s Gurugram district, for ₹7.5 crore in February 2008.
The following day, the mutation process—which often takes months—was completed. The plot’s worth rose once he was granted permission to build a housing society on the property a few months later. In June, he sold it to DLF for ₹58 crore.
The ED has been looking into the source of the windfall gains because they believe the proceeds are part of a money laundering conspiracy. The agreements were reached when Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the chief minister and the Congress controlled the state.
Here is the timeline of the case:
October 2012: Citing procedural flaws, IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who was then assigned as the Director General of property Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector-General of Registration of Haryana, canceled the property purchase agreement.
Both Vadra and DLF received a clean sheet from an internal government commission in 2013.(Tracking the Trail)
May 2014: To look into matters related to the awarding of a commercial license to Skylight, the BJP-led government in Haryana established a Commission of Inquiry in 2015, headed by Justice S N Dhingra (retd).
September 2018: Robert Vadra, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and others were the subject of a formal complaint filed by the Haryana Police.
January 2019: Citing procedural errors, the Punjab and Haryana High Court invalidated the Commission of Inquiry’s report and barred the Haryana government from disseminating it. The government did not mandate a new Commission of Inquiry, but it did clarify that its ruling would not preclude the state government from establishing a new Commission of Inquiry on the same topic.
(Tracking the Trail) :
April 2023: The Haryana government claimed in an affidavit submitted to the P&H High Court that there had been no infractions in the land transfer to the DLF by Robert Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality. “On September 18, 2019, M/s Skylight Hospitality sold 3.5 acres to M/s DLF Universal Limited, according to the tehsildar of Manesar, Gurugram, and no laws or regulations were broken in the deal. In the affidavit signed by Inspector General (Gurugram) Raj Shri Singh, it was explicitly stated that the land in question had not been located in the name of M/s DLF Universal Limited and that it was still in the name of HSVP/HSIIDC, Haryana, in accordance with the report obtained from the tehsildar, Wazirabad, Gurugram.
November 2023: A Punjab and Haryana High Court panel, keeping an eye on the proceedings against MPs and MLAs, ordered that the investigation be finished as soon as possible, claiming that it had been dragging on for the previous five years.
Vadra was called by the federal anti-money laundering agency on April 8, 2025, but he failed to show up. Then, on April 15, a second summons was issued.(Tracking the Trail)
15 April 2025: The ED questioned Robert Vadra, the husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, for about six hours before asking him to re-join the investigation. In accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), his statement is being recorded.
