ED requests foreign agencies for details about UK assets linked to Vadra, summons NRI

The ED has widened its probe against Robert Vadra and requested its UK counterparts to share details of ownership and related financial transactions of over half-a-dozen assets there that the agency claimed were acquired using laundered money and belonged to him, officials said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also sought help from financial intelligence units of some countries to unravel the flow of funds used to buy these assets, they said.

The agency is preparing a blueprint to provisionally attach these immovable assets in London and nearby areas under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The 50-year-old businessman, who is the brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, has been grilled multiple times by the ED with regard to a London-based property located at 12, Bryanston Square worth 1.9 million GBP (British pounds), which it claims is allegedly owned by him.

Sources said the agency has evidence that some more assets in the United Kingdom are "linked" to Vadra. These include two houses -- one worth 5 million GBP and the other valued at 4 million GBP, and six flats.

The federal anti-money laundering agency, the sources said, has detected some alleged undisclosed transactions being made from Cyprus and Dubai for the purchase of these assets by people linked to Vadra.

Questioning of Vadra on his links to these assets has not got the agency much leads. It now wants to put Vadra through sustained interrogation and has moved court to cancel his anticipatory bail, they said.

The businessman, in his defence, had said that he was being subjected to "sensation and unnecessary drama" by the repeated exercise of summoning him by the ED.

He posted on the social media recently that his life "is unique and I have fought for almost a decade over baseless accusations."