The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday told a Delhi court that personal assistant of Robert Vadra, Manoj Arora, was the frontman for the son-in-law of former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in the money laundering case connected with the sale and purchase of a property in London.
Seeking issuance of an open-ended Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) against Mr. Arora, Special Public Prosecutor for the Directorate, Nitesh Rana, submitted before Special Judge Arvind Kumar that the property at 12, Bryanston Square was owned by Mr. Vadra.
Mr. Arora was looking after all the affairs related to the purchase of the property and issuance of the NBW against him was required to ensure that the probe proceeded, Mr. Rana submitted,
Mr. Arora was in possession of various documents of Mr. Vadra. Mr. Arora was constantly suggesting how and what to renovate in the property before it was officially bought by Mr. Vadra, Mr. Rana submitted.
Digital evidence
The Directorate started investigation in the matter on the basis of digital evidence recovered by the Income Tax Department during raids on the premises of Sanjay Bhandari, a fugitive arms dealer.
According to the email exchanges between Sumit Chadha, a close relative of Mr. Bhandari, Mr. Vadra and Mr. Arora, Mr. Vadra was beneficially controlling the London property.
He was not only renovating this property through Mr. Chadha but also had arranged funds for the same, the Directorate alleged.
The arguments will continue on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the court will take up for hearing the anticipatory bail application of Mr. Arora on January 10.
In the application, he alleged that the Directorate was forcing him to falsely implicate Mr. Vadra in the case.
