Robert Vadra on Wednesday afternoon appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) four days after a Delhi court ordered him to join the investigation. The ED questioned him for around six hours in a money laundering case and asked him to join the probe again on Thursday.
Vadra arrived at ED’s Jamnagar House office at 3.45 pm and left at 9.35 pm. He was accompanied by his wife and Congress general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who left the ED office after dropping him at the ED office where a team of seven ED officials of the rank of Deputy Director and Assistant Directors quizzed him.
According to an ED official, Vadra was asked questions related to transactions, purchase, and possession of certain immovable assets in London.
The ED’s case relates to the ownership of 1.9 million pounds of undisclosed assets abroad, allegedly belonging to Vadra.
Soon after Vadra’s questioning, his lawyer Suman Jyoti Khaitan told reporters “they wanted to harass him as part of political vendetta”.
“He (Vadra) felt that something wrong is going to happen. He on his own went to the court and said he is going to appear voluntarily before the ED. He asked the court to give him the date to appear before the ED. The court gave today’s date. He appeared before the ED on his own even without receiving summons.
“He answered every question he was asked. The matter is sub-judice, I cannot tell more. We have given the undertaking,” said Khaitan.
Vadra has been asked to join the investigation again at 10.30 am on Thursday, informed an ED source.
Vadra has denied owning, directly or indirectly, any property in London. He also denied having any acquaintance or association with the absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and his cousin Summit Chadha, said the sources.
Vadra had in December last year said that he would cooperate and not run away to some other country, adding that the process should be fair and legal.
“I haven’t done any wrong. We are not above the law, we are very much with the law. I am an Indian citizen and I am not running away anywhere,” Vadra had said.
Enforcement Directorate officials had, on December 7, as part of the investigation, conducted searches at a number of locations linked to Robert Vadra in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.
Delhi’s Patiala House Court had on Saturday granted interim protection to Robert Vadra till February 16 in the money laundering case.
Vadra has called the cases against him a political witch-hunt.
“I stand by my husband,” Priyanka told reporters before entering the Congress party office at Akbar Road on Wednesday after dropping husband Robert Vadra at the ED office.