Political circles were abuzz on Wednesday with the Congress’ latest star entry, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, defiantly accompanying her husband, businessman Robert Vadra, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in the face of the ruling BJP’s blistering attack on the “scams and corruption” tainting the Gandhi family.
Priyanka dropped her husband at the ED office in Jamnagar House before taking charge as All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary of the politically-crucial eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is also the first time that Robert Vadra appeared before any probe agency for alleged dubious and illegal financial dealings. Vadra has denied the allegations, terming them a political witch-hunt to target the Gandhis. Priyanka’s public appearance with her husband was perceived as the Gandhis giving a political rebuttal to the probe agencies’ various lines of enquiries against Robert Vadra.
“What message? He is my husband. I support my family,” Priyanka Gandhi told reporters when she reached the AICC headquarters at Akbar Road.
Before Priyanka Gandhi made her detour to the ED office, where Robert Vadra was questioned in connection with the alleged possession of illegal foreign assets, BJP fielded its spokesperson Sambit Patra to accuse the Gandhi siblings of being “mired in corruption”. Patra accused Vadra of having benefited from a petroleum and defence deal which took place in 2008-09, when the Congress-led UPA was in power.
An election jumla
Reacting on the ED move, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi termed it an election jumla . “The current summons which he (Vadra) is answering today in a spirit of co-operation with the ED, is a matter in which a stay order has been given by a court,” Singhvi said.
BJP hits back
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, Patra claimed that Vadra utilised the money to buy posh properties worth crores in London. Quoting an e-mail trail, he alleged that Vadra’s company received “kickbacks” from a series of companies floated to “turn black money into white”.
“The 2019 Lok Sabha election is a fight between the gang of corrupt versus transparency of Narendra Modi government,” he said.
The ED’s questioning of Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law also reportedly involves confronting him with the e-mails and the statements made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act by an employee at Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality, named Manoj Arora.
Arora is under the court’s interim protection from arrest till February 16. The ED appeared before Special Judge Arvind Kumar on Wednesday to fix the next date of hearing in Arora’s case on February 16, the day when Vadra’s case too comes up for hearing.
The case relates to allegations of money laundering in the purchase of a London-based property — located at 12, Bryanston Square — worth £1.9 million, which is allegedly owned by Vadra.