Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, was granted interim bail on Saturday by the Patiala House Court till February 16 in connection with a money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). It is alleged that he and his associates received a kickback related to a petroleum deal in 2009.
Ordering Vadra to join the ED investigation against him which is scheduled to take place on 6 February, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Arvind Kumar set the bail bond at Rs. 1 lakh and also set a surety amount of the same figure.
ED’s counsel and Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh informed the court that new details have emerged regarding Robert Vadra’s various properties overseas. An amount of 1.9 million pounds of property is ‘involved’ in the case, stated the ED counsel. That apart, cases of four and five million pounds of money laundering are also registered against him, added DP Singh. Robert Vadra is also ‘in the possession’ of six different flats outside India, it was said in court. Reacting to this, Vadra’s counsel and senior Congress leader KTS Tulsi informed the court that Vadra was currently in London tending to his ailing mother but would join the investigation as directed.
Earlier, Robert Vadra had dismissed the charges against him and called them politically motivated. On Friday, he applied for pre-arrest bail and declared himself to be a ‘law-abiding citizen’ in his petition.
