ED issues fresh summons to Robert Vadra in Sanjay Bhandri linked PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate has issued a fresh summons to Robert Vadra, the businessman husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, for questioning in a money laundering case linked to UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari, official sources said on Monday.

He has been asked to depose before the federal probe agency here on June 17 for the recording of his statement in this case that is being investigated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.

Vadra, 56, was called for questioning in the case on June 10 but he skipped, saying he had flu-like symptoms on June 9 and had undertaken a COVID test as per protocol.

His lawyer had then said that Vadra had no intention of avoiding summons and was ready to appear before the ED anytime before or after his travel abroad later this month.

The agency is understood to have summoned Vadra to record his statement under the PMLA and subsequently file a chargesheet in the case.

The federal probe agency had questioned the businessman for three consecutive days in April in a separate money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in a 2008 land deal in Haryana. He is being investigated in three money laundering cases by the ED.

Bhandari (63) fled to London in 2016, soon after the Income Tax Department raided him in Delhi.

A UK court earlier this month refused an application filed by the Indian government seeking permission to appeal in Britain's Supreme Court against the discharge of Bhandari in an extradition case, virtually ruling out chances of him being brought to the country to face the law.

The ED filed a chargesheet in this case in 2023, alleging that Bhandari acquired the 12, Bryanston Square house in London in 2009 and got it renovated "as per the directions of Robert Vadra, who provided the funds for the renovation".

Vadra has denied that he owns any London property directly or indirectly.

Terming the charges a "political witch hunt", Vadra said he was being "hounded and harassed" to subserve political ends.

The ED is also investigating Vadra in a separate money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner.