The BJP and the Congress went head-to-head on media reports on Tuesday on a TV channel, Times Now, that alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, had links with the fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Congress must explain the links between Mr. Vadra and Mr. Bhandari and their silence on the issue could be construed as acceptance of the charges.
Spending on house
Citing the media report, Ms. Sitharaman alleged that a London house linked to Mr. Vadra had been refurbished by Mr. Bhandari, who also made arrangements for his travel abroad.
She said 7.5 lakh Swiss francs were deposited in a bank account of Mr. Bhandari, and asked if there was a connection between this and the money spent on refurbishing the London house.
Ms. Sitharaman, again citing the media report, alleged that there were at least three transactions between them with “serious financial implications”.
“Why is the Congress vice-president, who has been emulating the Prime Minister in his tweets, maintaining a silence on this,” she asked.
Dismisses charge
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, however, rubbished the claims, and said it was being done to distract people from the accusations hurled against Jay Shah, son of BJP president Amit Shah, by a news portal.
“An unnerved and running scared BJP is on a ‘save Shah Jada’ mission. Instead of ordering an inquiry into the business dealing of company owned by Amit Shah’s wife, daughter-in-law and son which is being demanded by people in Opposition and even RSS, Nirmala Sitharaman is on an agenda of diversionary tactics but they will never succeed,” he said.
“The vicious witch-hunt and vendetta against Robert Vadra has continued for 41 months by Modi government. They are in power at the Centre, Haryana and Rajasthan and not a single wrongdoing, violation of any law or a criminal misconduct has been established. In fact, the Rajasthan police has not come up with anything even after a protracted three-year-long investigation,” he added.
