Robert Vadra made Rs 50 crore illegal profit from land deal: Report

April 28, 2017

New Delhi, Apr 28: Congress president Sonia Gandhi`s son-in-law Robert Vadra made an "illegal profit" of over Rs 50 crore from a 2008 land deal without investing a penny, according to a panel that probed suspect Haryana land deals.

The Economic Times citing unnamed people familiar with the SN Dhingra commission report said the committee had probed transactions between Onkareshwar Properties and Vadra-owned Skylight Hospitality and subsequently between Skylight and developer DLF.

The Dhingra commission investigated over 20 properties said to have been purchased by Vadra and his companies, said the paper.

The panel has observed an alleged collusion between dealers and the then Congress government of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, aimed at benefiting Vadra`s Skylight. The commission was set up by the Manohar Lal Khattar`s BJP government in May 2015 to look into the grant of licences for change in land use in four villages of Gurgaon, including the licence granted to Skylight.

The Economic Times said the Vadra-owned hospitality firm had bought land from Onkareshwar Properties.

In response to the paper, Vadra`s lawyer said the company or his client had "committed no wrong and no laws were violated." Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a statement on Thursday said the agricultural land bought by her in in Amipur village of Faridabad district or other property acquired by her had "no links to finances of her husband, his Skylight Hospitality or reality major DLF".

She said the land was purchased for Rs 15 lakh through cheque, which comes to Rs 3 lakh per acre.

The statement said the funds for the purchase came from rental income of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from property inherited by her from her grandmother Indira Gandhi.

The commission has observed that while reviewing the land transferred to Vadra`s company, the sale deed was executed in favour of Skylight for zero payment.

The land was then sold to DLF at a much higher price after the change in land use, resulting in the Rs 50.5-crore profit.

"Other properties may have been bought with such funds and this needed to be investigated," the commission`s report is said to have concluded, according to the paper.

The report was submitted on August 31 last year. The government sent it to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover last week after a bench asked for it in connection with a pending petition on land deals.

Former Chief Minister Hooda had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking to stop "an English business daily" from publishing the news report "on the basis of the probe report".

"It will result in irreparable loss to the petitioner (Hooda), hence the newspaper be made as party and restrained from publishing contents of the report," Hooda said in an application that he withdrew later.

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Over 58 lakh names dropped from draft voter list in Bengal ahead of polls

News Network

December 16,2025

The deletion of over 58 lakh names from West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has sparked widespread concern and is likely to deepen political tensions in the poll-bound state.

According to the Election Commission, the revision exercise has identified 24 lakh voters as deceased, 19 lakh as relocated, 12 lakh as missing, and 1.3 lakh as duplicate entries. The draft list, published after the completion of the first phase of SIR, aims to remove errors and duplication from the electoral rolls.

However, the scale of deletions has raised fears that a large number of eligible voters may have been wrongly excluded. The Election Commission has said that individuals whose names are missing can file objections and seek corrections. The final voter list is scheduled to be published in February next year, after which the Assembly election announcement is expected. Notably, the last Special Intensive Revision in Bengal was conducted in 2002.

The development has intensified the political row over the SIR process. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have strongly opposed the exercise, accusing the Centre and the Election Commission of attempting to disenfranchise lakhs of voters ahead of the elections.

Addressing a rally in Krishnanagar earlier this month, Banerjee urged people to protest if their names were removed from the voter list, alleging intimidation during elections and warning of serious consequences if voting rights were taken away.

The BJP, meanwhile, has defended the revision and accused the Trinamool Congress of politicising the issue to protect what it claims is an illegal voter base. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the ruling party fears losing power due to the removal of deceased, fake, and illegal voters.

The controversy comes amid earlier allegations by the Trinamool Congress that excessive work pressure during the SIR led to the deaths by suicide of some Booth Level Officers (BLOs), for which the party blamed the Election Commission. With the draft list now out, another round of political confrontation appears imminent.

As objections begin to be filed, the focus will be on whether the correction mechanism is accessible, transparent, and timely—critical factors in ensuring that no eligible voter is denied their democratic right ahead of a crucial election.

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