Robert Vadra left ED headquarters, questioned for 4.30 hours in petro-chemical scam case

News Topical, Digital Desk : Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi's husband Robert Vadra arrived at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office for questioning, Priyanka Gandhi was also with him. This questioning is related to a scam related to a petro-chemical project and the purchase and sale of an expensive property in London, in which Vadra's role is being investigated. Vadra was questioned for four and a half hours in this case.

What is the matter?

This case is related to a petrochemical project to be built in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the year 2008. A government company (PSU) had entrusted Samsung Engineering with the task of building a part of this project. Samsung Engineering hired Sanjay Bhandari's Dubai-based company Santech International FZC for this work.

Money transactions and London property

1. December 2008: Samsung awards the contract.
2. June 2009: Samsung paid US$4,990,000 to Sanjay Bhandari's company Santech International FZC.
3. June 2009 (same month): Sanjay Bhandari bought an expensive property in Bryanston Square, London.

This property was registered in the name of Vortex Private Limited, to whose account Santech transferred about 1.9 million pounds sterling. Later, all the shares of Vortex were bought by a Dubai-based company Sky Lite Investments FZE. This company is controlled by C. Thampi, who is said to be close to Robert Vadra.

allegations against robert vadra

Emails with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have revealed that discussions were going on between Sanjay Bhandari, Sumit Chaddha (Bhandari's relative), Manoj Arora and Robert Vadra regarding this property. It is alleged that Vadra was also showing interest in the repair of this property and was constantly asking for updates.

The ED says Sanjay Bhandari spent an additional £65,900 on this property, but later sold it to Mayfair FZE Sharjah for £1.9 million.

Allegations of 'round tripping'

ED believes that this whole case is of 'round tripping'. This means-

1. Fake contracts were created.
2. The bribe was shown as 'consultancy fees'.
3. Property was purchased abroad with this money.
4. Then by selling the property the money was shown to be legitimate.

ED investigation, Vadra refuses

In this case, ED is investigating a luxury property named 10 Bryanston Square in London. It is alleged that this property was bought by Sanjay Bhandari through an oil deal, but its real owner was Robert Vadra. However, Vadra has always denied this allegation and said that he has nothing to do with this property.

It is worth noting that about a week ago, ED declared Sanjay Bhandari a fugitive economic offender. This action was taken under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act). According to ED, many international transactions have taken place in this case and evidence of huge irregularities has been found in the purchase and sale of this property. Now Robert Vadra will be asked what his role was in this deal and whether he is the real beneficial owner of this property. Sources say that the agency has some documents that point towards Vadra's role.

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