On Thursday, 14th May, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Delhi High Court that businessman and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s husband, Robert Vadra, had made “false and incorrect statements” in his petition challenging the trial court’s decision to take cognisance of the money laundering case linked to him.
The matter came up before Justice Manoj Jain after Vadra challenged the trial court order issued on April 16. The lower court had taken cognisance of the ED case related to land deals in Gurugram and had summoned Vadra in connection with the investigation.
ED strongly opposes Vadra’s arguments
Appearing for the ED, advocate Zoheb Hossain strongly opposed Vadra’s plea and argued that several claims made by him regarding the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were factually wrong.
Hossain told the court that Vadra had argued certain offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were added to the PMLA schedule only after the alleged offence period between 2008 and 2012. However, the ED said this argument was misleading.
“This [Vadra’s plea] needs to go with costs. I have done an exercise of pulling out all the bare acts. Complete false submissions. Section 467 IPC was there in its original inception in the PMLA schedule. Ex facie, false and incorrect statements are made. Completely false statements,” Hossain submitted before the court.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Vadra, argued that some IPC offences and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act linked to the case were added to the PMLA schedule only later. He also said the issues of retrospective application and jurisdiction had already been raised before the trial court, but were not properly addressed.
After hearing both sides, the High Court adjourned the matter till 18th May.
“Mr Singhvi, please come prepared on this aspect on Monday because that is your central plank… We will hear you on Monday,” the court said.
Background of the Gurugram land deal case
The case is linked to a 2008 land deal in Gurugram involving a company associated with Robert Vadra. According to the ED, the company purchased 3.5 acres of land in Shikohpur village for ₹7.5 crore using a fraudulent sale deed without making the declared payment at the time of registration.
Investigators claim that the land was given as a bribe to help Vadra secure a housing licence in the same village using his influence with the then Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The ED further said that after the licence was granted, the land was later sold to real estate giant DLF for around ₹58 crore. The agency has also flagged irregular allotment of nearly 350 acres of land in Wazirabad, Gurugram, to DLF, which helped the company earn profits of nearly ₹5,000 crore.
