Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has gifted the land he owned near a plot of brother-in-law Robert Vadra in Haryana to sister Priyanka. Rahul had bought the six-acre land on March 3, 2008, in Hassanpur village of Haryana’s Palwal district for Rs 26.47 lakh. The same day, Vadra had bought agricultural land in Hassanpur, paying Rs 36.90 lakh for nearly nine acres.
In 2012, Rahul gifted this land to Priyanka.
The gift came at a time when Vadra’s properties purchased in Haryana during the same year were in controversy due to a deal with real estate giant DLF. Rahul gave the land to his sister, on July 26, 2012, and three months later, in October, Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka cancelled mutation of some other plot of Vadra.
The state government had termed the Vadra-DLF deal “private transactions”.
Two separate sale deeds were executed for Rahul and Vadra for the Hassanpur land, through a common power of attorney holder, Mahesh Singh Nagar.
In his declaration to the Lok Sabha Secretariat on August 12, 2012, Rahul had stated, “I have gifted via Gift Deed my agriculture land measuring 51 kanal and 13 marlas… to my sister Smt Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, without any monetary consideration.” His letter further clarified, “Since this is a gift to my sibling, there is no consideration received in lieu of the transfer of this piece of agriculture land.”
Another declaration made by him to the Secretariat, for the year 2013, shows that Rahul has purchased two commercial properties in Gurgaon’s Signature Towers-II. He booked these properties in October 2010 for over Rs 1.44 crore and Rs 5.36 crore respectively. He has so far paid two installments, of Rs 6.89 crore in total. The Congress vice-president has not mentioned the size of the properties in his declaration.
The declaration also shows that before buying the Gurgaon properties, Rahul sold two shops owned by him in Metropolitan Mall, in Delhi’s Saket, for Rs 5.28 crore. He had purchased the two shops in 2006.
Rahul is among the 20 Lok Sabha MPs who have updated their assets and liabilities after making the first such declaration during the 15th Lok Sabha.
