The curious case of Vadra companies

While Justice S N Dhingra Commission is all set to submit its findings on Sonia Gandhi’s son in law Robert Vadra for land grabbing related cases, the curious case of his pattern of floating 17 companies from November 2007 has not yet been probed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) under Central Government’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs (as far as we know). Till date Vadra has floated 17 companies, out of which the recent five are floated as LLPs (Limited Liability Partnerships). The entire list of companies is published at the end of this post.

When Vadra’s name first figured  in controversies in March 2011, he had only floated six companies. All his transactions with the real estate company Delhi Land & Finance (DLF) revolved around these six companies, namely Real Earth Estates Pvt Ltd, North India IT Parks Pvt ltd, Blue Breeze Trading Pvt Ltd, Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd, Sky Light Realty Pvt Ltd and Lambodar Art Enterprises Indian Pvt Ltd.

When the Economic Times first published Vadra’s business interests in March 2011 and his dealings with DLF, BJP’s leaders maintained a stony silence. In October 2012, just before the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was formed, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan convened a press conference in which they rehashed this issue. BJP silence on Vadra became AAP’s advantage and they struck gold. That AAP, upon coming to power, relied on Congress support and seldom criticizes Congress is a story for another day. It must be mentioned that Bhushan is no longer a part of AAP.

After  the controversy, Vadra converted three companies into LLPs and later dissolved them. These three companies are Real Earth Estate Private Limited, North India IT Parks Private Limited and Blue Breeze Trading Private Limited.  Wife Priyanka Gandhi was the first Director in Blue Breeze.  Vadra converted two companies Lambodar Art Enterprises Private Limited and Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited into LLPs.  Among his first six ventures, the only company that is still active is Sky Light Realty Private Limited.

Vadra floated another set of six companies in July and August 2012. These companies went totally unnoticed. They are Lifeline Agrotech Pvt ltd, Best Seasons Agro Private Limited, Greenwave Agro Private Limited, Rightline Agriculture Pvt ltd, Future Infra Agro Pvt ltd and Prime Time Agro Private Ltd.  These six companies, coincidentally floated at the same address, was caught by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in April 2014:  Swamy seeks probe into Vadra’s Companies.

Swamy wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that all these companies were floated by Vadra along with a DLF staffer to grab a prime land near Rashtrapati Bhawan. In a move that is baffling, Vadra put his DLF partner’s official email id and Swamy caught on to it. Sensing danger, within three months Vadra dissolved all these six companies.

In January 2015 Vadra floated two LLPs in the old name of his closed companies. They are North India IT Parks LLP and Real Earth Estates LLP.  In April 2015, he floated one more LLP, namely Blue Breeze Trading LLP. Recently in May 2016 Vadra floated two more LLPs, namely Sky Light Hospitality LLP and Lambodar Art Enterprises India LLP.  All these five new LLPs floated during the Narendra Modi led BJP government carry the name of his old closed down controversial companies.

Some questions:

1. Did the Ministry of Corporate Affairs under the BJP government in July 2014 check the companies Vadra closed for any wrongdoing?

2. That so many companies are being opened and closed in a short period of time should pique the curiosity of SFIO under Ministry Of Corporate affairs and the ED. Has either the SFIO or ED acted on this?

3. What is the reason for closing Private Limited companies and re-opening them as LLPs?

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. This article has been written based on information available on the web and in the media.

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