The Enforcement Directorate (ED) continues to question businessman Robert Vadra for the second day, in connection with a property, worth 1.9 million pounds, allegedly owned by him in London at 12, Bryanston Square. He was quizzed was for 5 hours on Wednesday, 6 February.
The agency alleged that Vadra, who is the husband of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, purchased this property with the money he allegedly received as a kickback in a defence deal through arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
The defence deal in question is the procurement of 75 Swiss Pilatus PC-7 basic trainer aircraft, worth Rs 2,896 crore, inked during the UPA’s rule in May 2012.
Sanjay Bhandari, a key player in the defence deal case, fled the country in December 2016 after a case was filed against him under the Official Secrets Act. The case was registered after a few documents pertaining to certain defence deals were recovered from him.
Later, a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act was also registered against him in the arms deal (Swiss Pilatus PC-7).
Raids were conducted at Bhandari’s residence in 2016 by the agencies, during which email trails between Vadra and Bhandari and his relative Sumit Chadha were recovered.
The Quint has accessed the email allegedly written by Vadra to Sumit Chadha on 15 April 2010. The subject matter of the email is Bryanston Square.
In the email, Chadha is requesting Vadra to send him funds to complete the ongoing refurbishing work allegedly at the latter’s property in Bryanston Square. In reply, Vadra said that he will look into the matter.
Sources from the ED told The Quint:
“The email is the only electronic evidence we have to show that Vadra could be the owner of the property.”
While the agency is still trying to find out details about the property’s owner, during its investigation it found out that it was owned by a shell company.
Sources told The Quint that Vadra has denied all allegations against him, including writing those emails to Bhandari.
The Defence Deal Case
A case was registered against Sanjay Bhandari when the investigating agencies found that he received a huge sum of around 7,50,000 Swiss Francs (about Rs 5.36 crores) in his company Offset India Solutions (Private) Ltd. The agency alleged that he received this amount as a kickback for the Swiss Pilatus aircraft deal.
The agency claims that, in a response from the UK government on their Letter Rogatory, they have managed to get the complete money trail of the alleged kickback money which came from the aircraft company to Bhandari’s company, and was eventually transferred to the bank account of the shell company which purchased the London property.
To get more details on the purchase of the property, the ED conducted raids at the office and residence of Manoj Arora, a close aide of Vadra. He was allegedly an employee in Vadra’s company Skylight Hospitality LLP.
The agency claims documents reveal that Arora was involved in recce of the London-based property.
Arora appeared before the agency after securing an anticipatory bail from the court. The ED recorded his statement in January 2019. Sources said he hasn’t provided enough evidence to implicate Vadra.
Vadra’s questioning on Wednesday lasted for five hours. During the questioning, he was confronted with the emails that he allegedly wrote to Bhandari and also with Arora’s statement. He reportedly didn’t deny knowing Arora.
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