Robert Vadra skips ED summons for second time in money laundering case
Robert Vadra, the businessman husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, skipped his scheduled deposition before the Enforcement Directorate for the second time in a money laundering case linked to UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari, official sources said on Tuesday.
Sources close to Vadra said he has communicated his travel plan to the UAE and UK for this week in advance to the agency and that he would join the probe once he is back in India.
He skipped the June 10 summons 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 be summoning Vadra to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (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.