Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra has been given 4 weeks to file a response to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) reply to his petition seeking quashing of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Delhi high court.
Vadra’s counsel, senior advocate KTS Tulsi sought time from the court to file the rejoinder to ED’s reply and reassured the court that the documents were all but ready. Denying ED’s allegations that Vadra suppressed material facts in the matter, advocate Tulsi said that no such suppression of facts was done by his client.
“They did not provide us with the ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) and then they accuse us of suppressing the facts. They provided me with the ECIR only after the court’s order. I have mentioned everything that was in my knowledge. There has been no suppression of facts on our part,” counsel Tulsi said.
A bench comprising of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal listed the matter for further hearing on November 18.
Vadra’s close aide Manish Arora has also sought cancelling charges of money laundering. The money laundering case against Manoj Arora was initiated after investigative agencies began probing arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and confidential defence ministry documents were found in his possession. Following which, one email thread was found from Sanjay Bhandari’s computer, among Monoj Arora, Sanjay Bhandari and Robert Vadra. The email, according to ED, was regarding a London property worth Rs 1.9 million pounds.
As per the ED, Vadra was beneficially controlling the £ 1.9 million London property. Vadra had also allegedly executed renovation work for the same and arranged for funds. Absconding defence dealer Sanjay Bhandari, Vadra’s aide, allegedly purchased the property for £ 1.9 million and sold it to a Vadra-controlled firm for the same amount after allegedly spending £ 65,900 on renovating it. The ED maintained that Bhandari was not the actual owner of the property, but it was beneficially owned by Vadra and accused him of money laundering.
