ED quizzes Vadra for 6 hours, Priyanka says I stand by him

New Delhi: Days after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was inducted as the general secretary of the Congress, her husband, Robert Vadra, was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case for almost six hours.

Surprising all and sending a clear and firm signal that she “stands” by her husband,  Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra dropped her husband at the ED’s office for questioning on Wednesday. Mr Vadra was summouned in connection with alleged money laundering in the purchase of a London-based property — located at 12, Bryanston Square — worth £1.9 million. The property is allegedly owned by Mr Vadra. Virtually daring the saffron forces, who have been honing their knives to lunge at her through her husband, Ms Vadra told journalists, “He is my husband, he is my family... I stand by him, I stand by my family.”  

Asked if it was a political vendetta, she said everyone knows why this is being done.

Ms Vadra accompanied her husband, in a white Toyota Land Cruiser along with Special Personnel Group (SPG) personnel in tow, and dropped him outside the agency’s office in Jamnagar House in central Delhi. She then drove straight to AICC and assumed charge as AICC general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh East. She was appointed to the post on January 23.

Mr Vadra entered the ED office at around 3:45 pm even as a team of his lawyers had arrived minutes before him. He left the ED office at around 9.40 pm.

This is the first time that Mr Vadra appeared before any probe agency in connection with alleged criminal charges of dubious financial dealings. Mr Vadra, who has denied the charges in the past, describe then as a “political witch hunt” against him.  He also claimed that the investigation was “political vendetta” and described the agencies investigating him as “malicious”, and their action “unwarranted and unjustified.”

Mr Vadra, who had earlier sought an anticipatory bail, was asked by a Delhi court to cooperate with the investigation. The court had asked him to appear before the ED on Wednesday after returning from London.

The ED reportedly questioned him on transactions, purchase and possession of certain immovable assets in London. His statements were recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED had carried out raids in this case in December last year and grilled his aide Manoj Arora, an employee of a firm linked to Mr Vadra, Skylight Hospitality LLP. Mr Vadra has also been directed by the Rajasthan high court to appear before the ED on February 12 in connection with another money laundering case being probed by the agency.

Earlier in the day a Delhi court extended till February 16 the interim protection from being arrested to Mr Arora. The ED requested Special Judge Arvind Kumar that as the next date of hearing in Mr Vadra’s case was fixed for February 16, this case too be posted for the same date.

The BJP seized on the questioning of Mr Vadra to attack the Congress and allege he got kickbacks from a petroleum and defence deal that took place during the UPA regime.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged at a news conference that Mr Vadra bought eight to nine properties in London from the money he got as kickbacks from a petroleum and a defence deal which took place in 2008-09 when the UPA was in power. Mr Patra did not provide any evidence to back up his claim.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the charges against Mr Vadra are “fickle, superficial, non-existent, non-substantive”. The BJP had full four and a half years to investigate but could not find anything, he claimed at a news conference. The attempt is to mislead, confuse and to create and ambience before election, but people see through this, he said.

“The ED, income-tax department, the CBI, and 10 other agencies could not do a thing against him for so many years. It shows that this is nothing but an ‘electoral jumla’”.

The ED had told the court that it filed the money laundering case against Mr Arora after his role cropped up during the probe of another case by the income tax department under the 2015 anti-blackmoney legislation against absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

It alleged that the London-based property was bought by Mr Bhandari for £1.9 million and sold in 2010 for the same amount despite incurring additional expenses of approximately £65,900 on its renovation.

“This gives credence to the fact that Mr Bhandari was not the actual owner of the property but it was beneficially owned by Mr Vadra who was incurring expenditure on the renovation of this property,” the ED had claimed before the court.

Mr Arora was a key person in the case and he was aware of Mr Vadra’s overseas undeclared assets and was instrumental in arranging funds, the ED had alleged.