‘Robert Vadra stayed at London house bought with proceeds of crime’: What the ED said in court

The federal agency alleged that Vadra renovated and stayed in certain properties bought by Thampi in London, suggesting close financial links between the two.

“ED investigation further revealed that C. C. Thampi is a close associate of Mr Robert Vadra. Mr Robert Vadra not only renovated the aforesaid property at 12 Bryanston Square, London through Sumit Chadha but also stayed in the same. Further, Mr Robert Vadra as well as C. C. Thampi purchased huge chunk of land at Faridabad and had financial transactions with each other,” the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

What is the London property matter?

In 2018, the ED raided premises associated with Skylight Hospitality, a firm linked to Robert Vadra, in connection with a case of money laundering it had registered against Bhandari for holding undisclosed assets abroad.

Soon, Vadra was questioned by the agency on multiple occasions.

According to the ED, the matter was linked to a Petroleum Ministry deal in 2008, under the UPA government, in which alleged kickbacks flowed into a UK-based company named Santech, of which Bhandari was Director.

The ED told a court then that Bhandari bought a property at Bryanston Square from the money that flowed into the company. The money was allegedly routed through another company named Vortex, the ED had told the court.

The ED claimed that shortly after the Petroleum Ministry deal, Santech received close to US $49.9 lakh in its account via a single transaction on June 13, 2009.

ED has claimed that of this money, 1.9 million GBP (British pound sterling) were siphoned off into Vortex and then used by Bhandari to buy the Brynston Square property, which is currently held by Skylight FZE, which shares its name with Skylight Hospitality. Skylight FZE is promoted by CC Thampi, who was arrested by the ED in the case in 2020. The ED has claimed that the property was sold to Thampi in 2010 at the same price despite carrying out renovations of over 65,000 GBP.

Vadra had earlier denied any wrongdoing and having any connection with the London properties.

What is the Faridabad property matter?

Other than Thampi, the alleged role of a real estate dealer, Harbans Lal Pahwa, was also scrutinised by the ED as part of the probe. Pahwa had previously been a director in Real Earth Estates, a company owned by Vadra.
The ED has found that 42 acres of land were purchased by Pahwa in 2005-2006 (in three parcels) and, in each case, sold almost at the same price to Vadra within months of the purchase.

The same parcels of land at Amipur, the ED found, were subsequently — between October and December 2010 —sold back to Pahwa by Vadra, at a “substantial profit’’. For instance, 12 acres bought by Vadra for Rs 32.4 lakh were re-purchased by Pahwa for Rs 95 lakh; 20 acres bought for Rs 54 lakh were sold back for Rs 1.55 crore; and 10 acres purchased for Rs 26.5 lakh were sold back to Pahwa for Rs 50 lakh.

The ED found that around the time the transactions were being done, Thampi made a huge cash payment to Pahwa. This is what the ED has concluded: “C C Thampi who had financial dealings with Sanjay Bhandari had deposited cash of Rs 50 crores to H L Pahwa which was used for several land dealings and Robert Vadra is admittedly a friend of both C C Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari.’’

This was also linked to a financial transaction between DLF and Vadra where the latter received Rs 15 crore from the real estate giant for sale of the Faridabad land, but the deal did not go through because of legal issues.

What is the petroleum ministry deal?

The petroleum ministry deal was related to a petro-chemical complex that the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has been building in a special economic zone in Dahej, Gujarat.

One of the projects in this complex was implemented by Samsung Engineering Ltd, which hired Bhandari’s firm Santech International FZC for consultancy services before it bagged the deal. After the award of the contract in December 2008, Samsung paid USD 49.9 lakh to Santech on June 13, 2009.

In July 2020, based on information provided by the ED, the CBI registered a case of corruption against Bhandari, Samsung Engineering Ltd and unknown officials of ONGC.

What are the other cases against Vadra?

Apart from the Sanjay Bhandari case, Vadra is also embroiled in the Gurgaon and Bikaner land deal cases.

The Gurgaon case is the only one where Vadra is named in the FIR. In September 2018, the Haryana Police booked Vadra and former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, apart from DLF and Onkareshwar Properties, on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraud, forgery and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The FIR has alleged the accused committed a scam of Rs 5,000 crore through dubious sale and resale of 3.5 acres of land in Gurgaon involving Skylight Hospitality.

In the Bikaner case, there are FIRs by three different agencies but none name Vadra directly. It was the Rajasthan police that first filed 18 FIRs in the matter in 2014, followed by cancellation of the deal. Based on these FIRs, the ED began a probe under Prevention of Money Laundering Act the next year. In August 2017, CBI registered 18 FIRs in connection with the alleged scam. The probes still continue.

The cases pertain to fraudulent and fictitious claims and allotments in lieu of land acquired for Mahajan Field Firing Range Bikaner, which is used by the Army, the CBI has said.