Businessman Robert Vadra on Tuesday accused the Centre of being vindictive and harassing his mother. Robert Vadra and his mother Maureen Vadra appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur earlier in the day in connection with an alleged land scam in Bikaner.
“Not understanding the lows of this vindictive government to be harassing a senior citizen, who the world knows has lost her daughter in a car crash, her ailing son to diabetes, and her husband as well,” Robert Vadra wrote in a Facebook post. Robert Vadra is the husband of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The businessman alleged that his mother was being “accused, maligned, and interrogated” spending time in his office.
Robert Vadra asked why the government had taken more than four years to begin questioning him, and that too a month before campaigning begins for the Lok Sabha elections. “Do they think people in India do not view it as an election gimmick?” he asked.
The businessman said he had nothing to hide and would answer any question with “respect and dignity”. “As I always have adhered to rules and overall being a disciplined person, I have the ability to sustain any amount of hours of questioning...This too shall pass and will make me stronger,” he added. “What goes around comes around.”
The Enforcement Directorate is investigating the Bikaner land scam case on the basis of a first information report filed by the Rajasthan Police in 2015. The investigating agency has registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, accusing Vadra’s firm Skylight Hospitality of buying and selling the land in Bikaner at an extremely high price after several illegal transactions.
In January, the Rajasthan High Court asked Robert Vadra and his mother to appear before the investigating agency. The agency had summoned Vadra three times in the past in connection with the case but he did not appear for questioning.
Robert Vadra appeared before the Enforcement Directorate three times in Delhi last week in connection with another investigation into alleged money laundering. According to the directorate, he bought property in London worth £1.9 million (Rs 17.5 crore) using profits from “criminal acts”. The money was reportedly channeled through the United Arab Emirates.
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