A humble email id, corporateaffairs@dlf.in, has nailed a direct connection between Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and the real estate giant, DLF. This is the common email id furnished by all DLF Group Directors to the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
In this case, it has been given by one Amit Mehta, an executive of the DLF, in his capacity as non-executive director (Director Identification Number 03105957) of Greenwave Agro Private Limited, a new company of which Robert Vadra (DIN no. 01840634) is the Managing Director and Promoter. His email id is artex@artexrv.com
This information may clear the mystery behind the Union Ministry of Urban Development permitting change in land use of a prime 23 acre property with a market worth of over Rs 20,000 crore, from dairy farm to permitting the DLF Group to build a four-storey residential complex in the vicinity of Rashtrapati Bhavan. The DLF reportedly purchased the plot at a throwaway price of Rs 65 crore and got the permission to build on the same despite stiff opposition from the Intelligence Bureau, the Union Home Ministry, and Rashtrapati Bhawan. The IB said the building would obstruct the flight path of the proposed helipad on the President’s Estate. The President’s staff also objected that it could make the First Citizen or his VIP guests vulnerable to a sniper attack.
As these objections were brushed aside, it was widely felt this was on account of the Group’s proximity with Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra.
Greenwave Agro Private Limited is one of six new companies registered by Robert Vadra between June and August 2012, in his capacity as Managing Director. The five others are Lifeline Agrotech Private Limited; Rightline Agriculture Private Limited; Future Infra Agro Private Limited; Best Seasons Agro Private Limited; and Primetime Agro Private Limited.
Six previous companies registered by Robert Vadra, as Director, include Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited; Blue Breeze Trading Private Limited; Sky Light Realty Private Limited; Real Earth Estates Private Limited; North India IT Parks Private Limited; and Lambodar Art Enterprises India Private Limited. All 12 firms have Active status as per the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India.
Robert Vadra’s mother, Maureen Vadra, is listed as a Director in six of his companies, and as Additional Director in two. Amit Mehta is listed as a Director in seven companies, which include five of Robert Vadra, viz., Greenwave Agro Private Limited; Rightline Agriculture Private Limited; Future Infra Agro Private Limited; Best Seasons Agro Private Limited; and Primetime Agro Private Limited. His status is Active (Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India).
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is listed as a Director, with Active status, in her husband’s company Blue Breeze Trading Private Limited, incorporated in November 2007. However, she is said to have resigned as per information with the RoC.
Since Robert Vadra’s new firms were incorporated around the time of the scam involving de-classification of the Keventer Dairy Ltd lands for residential use in the vicinity of Rashtrapati Bhavan, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has urged President Pranab Mukherjee to call for a probe by the Central Vigilance Commission into the affair.
The change in land use was not possible without political influence as it breached national security and gave windfall profits to the realty major. Sources point out that Robert Vadra has been engaged in hectic and often dubious land transactions, and that since March 2011, at least five of his companies have engaged in money transfers and huge investments with the DLF Group, which companies were floated in 2007-08 period, as reported in the media. In the six companies registered by him in this period, his mother Maureen Vadra is also Director. His wife Priyanka Gandhi was a Director in Blue Breeze Trading Private Limited but is said to have resigned on sensing a problem; she was also a Director in Backops Services Ltd, a company promoted by Rahul Gandhi, which has since been closed. These developments are recorded with the Registrar of Companies Delhi, though the Ministry of Corporate Affairs continues to list her status as Active vis-à-vis Blue Breeze Trading Private Limited.
Astonishingly, Priyanka Vadra has been allotted three DIN numbers – 01038703, 01840144 and 02914391 – which is a violation of the Company Act and the Income Tax Act. Maureen Vadra too has been allotted two DIN numbers – 01840680 and 01839769.
The first six companies headed by Robert Vadra have not filed any balance sheet or annual accounts after March 31, 2011. The reason, according to Subramanian Swamy, is that he stopped after these companies come under public scrutiny in March 2011. As a result, the public only knows of his transactions with DLF up to 2010, which included massive land acquisitions with the DLF Group in Haryana and Rajasthan.
Then, in 2012, Robert Vadra floated another set of six companies to handle operations for the DLF Group (mentioned above), using the same address, viz., 268, Sukhdev Vihar, Delhi – 110025. While his mother Maureen Vadra is the second Director in Lifeline Agrotech Private Limited, the DLF executive Amit Mehta is the Director in the remaining five companies. As Form No. 32 of the Registrar of Companies shows, Amit Mehta is clearly a DLF nominee, as inadvertently revealed through his use of the common email id of all DLF Group Directors to the RoC, viz., corporateaffairs@dlf.in
None of these new companies has so far filed balance sheet or annual accounts with the RoC. After the controversy over the proposed luxury flat complex in the vicinity of Rashtrapati Bhavan became public, the Centre asked for CBI inputs in the matter. But now, with the inadvertent expose of a direct Vadra-DLF commercial nexus, an official enquiry seems to be in order.
Niticentral.com, 14 April 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/14/new-evidence-links-dlf-with-robert-vadra-211726.html