New Delhi: Robert Vadra, the businessman husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has been summoned for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in connection with an ongoing money laundering investigation tied to fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
Vadra, as well as the Congress, has called this political vendetta an effort to tarnish the image of the party by the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar. The ED has been probing Vadra’s role in this matter since 2018, but failed to come up with anything concrete.
According to the ED, it is suspected that Bhandari used illicit funds obtained through defence contracts during the UPA regime to purchase properties abroad – particularly prime real estate in London, some of which allegedly list Robert Vadra as the beneficial owner.
Bhandari, meanwhile, continues to evade Indian authorities. Wanted in India on charges of tax evasion, black money, and money laundering, the arms dealer won a major legal battle in London in February and continues to reside in the UK. The High Court of Justice in London allowed Bhandari’s appeal against extradition, ruling that India’s Tihar Jail poses a “real risk” of extortion and violence, both from inmates and prison officials.
This shield provided to Bhandari by the London court has denied the ED access to Bhandari. Without questioning him directly, the agency cannot make its charges against Vadra stick, legal experts say.
Bhandari’s lawyers also opposed the ED’s recent plea to declare him a ‘fugitive economic offender’, who argued that his stay in the UK is legal following the British court’s refusal to extradite him.
The ED has been trying to trace money trails from alleged kickbacks in defence deals to offshore entities used by Bhandari, some of which reportedly facilitated the purchase of a London mansion linked to Vadra. Nothing has been established as yet.
Vadra, in the past, has said that he is willing to cooperate with the investigation, while calling the charges ‘baseless and motivated’.
