New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint against businessman Robert Vadra, as part of its money laundering probe into fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, currently based in the United Kingdom.
Husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi and the brother-in-law of Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi—Robert Vadra—has twice been charged by the agency this year. Earlier, the ED accused him in connection with a money laundering probe into a land deal in Haryana’s Shikohpur.
The ED, in a supplementary complaint to its prosecution complaint against Bhandari, alleged Saturday that Robert Vadra helped Sanjay Bhandari retain a posh property in London. It identified the property as “proceeds of crime”.
Vadra was confronted by ED sleuths earlier in July this year, agency sources told ThePrint.
“The evidence gathered indicates that Robert Vadra beneficially used the property acquired by Sanjay Bhandari for his personal use,” an ED source privy to the prosecution complaint told ThePrint. “Since it was found that Robert Vadra had proceeds of crime, a supplementary prosecution complaint has been filed.”
Vadra earlier denied having assets and properties in London, either directly or indirectly.
ThePrint reached out to his counsel for a response to the latest prosecution complaint, and it will be added in the story.
The Special PMLA judge would likely take up the matter on the next day of hearing—6 December.
The case
The ED’s investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) stems from a prosecution complaint—a government agency’s version of a charge sheet—filed by the Income Tax Department against Sanjay Bhandari under Section 51 of Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.
The ED, in its first prosecution complaint against Bhandari in June 2020, stated that the arms dealer had disclosed foreign interests and assets, including the Bryanston Square property and another in London.
Robert Vadra allegedly both purchased and furnished the Bryanston Square property, though it was acquired in the name of Bhandari for 1.9 million GBP (Great British Pounds).
“He used to decide about the interiors of the property, and he used to stay in the said property, even though the ownership of the property kept changing from Sanjay Bhandari to C.C. Thampi to Cheru. The evidence collected by ED revealed that Robert Vadra used this property during all these times when the property was in benami names,” the source quoted above further said.
The United Arab Emirates-based NRI Cheruvathur Chakutty Thampi (C.C. Thampi) and British national Sumit Chadha are two other businessmen, who the ED charged later in November 2023, as part of its proceedings in the case. The ED has identified Thampi as a close associate of Vadra, the lone shareholder of Vadra’s UAE-based firm, Sky Lite Investment FZE.
The United Kingdom High Court, earlier in February this year, rejected India’s extradition request for Sanjay Bhandari. A Delhi court in July this year declared Bhandari a Fugitive Economic Offender on the ED’s request.
In the November 2023 prosecution complaint, the ED also referred to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, though, it did not name her as an accused.
The agency alleged that she bought 40 kanals of land in Haryana’s Faridabad in 2006 from a real estate agent, H.L. Pahwa. It was from Pahwa that both Vadra and Thampi had allegedly purchased agricultural land parcels in Haryana.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)