ED questions Robert Vadra for 5 hours in Sanjay Bhandari-linked PMLA case

Robert Vadra, the businessman husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was on Monday questioned for about five hours by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari and some others, official sources said.

The 56-year-old Vadra arrived at the federal probe agency's office located in central Delhi after 11 am. He was accompanied by Priyanka Gandhi, MP from Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha seat. The session ended shortly after 5 pm, during which Vadra once went out during lunch hour.

The businessman's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.

They said he may be called again for questioning as he allegedly "failed" to answer certain questions regarding his financial links with Bhandari and his family members.

He was called by the agency twice last month for questioning in this case, but he sought deferment of his summons as he reported being unwell during the first summons and later had to travel abroad after obtaining approval from a local court.

Vadra is being investigated by the agency in three different money laundering cases, including two pertaining to alleged irregularities in land deals.

He was questioned by the ED in April for three consecutive days in a case linked to alleged irregularities in a 2008 Haryana land deal case. The businessman is also being investigated by the anti-money laundering agency in a case related to alleged financial irregularities in a land deal in Rajasthan's Bikaner.

The case linked to Vadra and Bhandari pertains to the ED findings reported in a chargesheet in 2023, alleging Bhandari "acquired" the 12, Bryanston Square house located in London in 2009 and got it renovated "as per the directions of Vadra and the funds for renovation were provided by Robert Vadra."  Vadra has denied that he owns any London property directly or indirectly. Terming these charges as a political witch hunt against him, he said that he was being "hounded and harassed" to subserve political ends.

The ED is expected to file a fresh chargesheet in the Bhandari case following the recording of Vadra's statement.

The 63-year-old Bhandari fled to London in 2016, soon after the Income Tax department raided him in Delhi. He was recently declared a fugitive economic offender by a Delhi court, paving the way for confiscation of his properties worth crores of rupees.

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