In a major relief for businessman and Congress President Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law, Robert Vadra, a Delhi court Monday granted anticipatory bail to Vadra in a money laundering case.
Th bail to Vadra was granted by Special Judge Arvind Kumar on furnishing a personal bond of Rs five lakh and a surety of like amount.
The court, however, ordered Vadra to not fly out of India without prior permission. The court also asked Vadra not to tamper with any evidence and influence any witness in the case.
Vadra is facing legal heat in a case of money laundering related to purchase of a property at 12, Bryanston Square in London, United Kingdom. The property is worth GBP 1.9 million.
The court also granted anticipatory bail to Vadra's close aide Manoj Arora in the same case. The court also ordered Vadra and Arora to join the investigation when called upon by the authorities.
The previous hearing in this case was held on Thursday and during the hearing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had urged the court to grant custodial interrogation of Vadra in connection with the money laundering case.
During the hearing, the ED also informed a special CBI court that Vadra was not cooperating with the investigative agency and rejected Vadra's claims of "political witch hunt".
"Harassment is being caused by Robert Vadra. We say let him come and join the investigation. It is held in camera and he comes for the sessions accompanied by many people including his wife and then he claims that he is `hounded and harassed` to subserve political ends. Vadra is attempting to over-awe the system," said Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) DP Singh on behalf of the ED.
The ED also showed the money trail of the London property in question to the court. "Property was bought by Sanjay Bhandari through his company Syntac. The property was then sold to Vertex for 1.9 million pounds through share purchase. Later, the renovation was carried out with 65 thousand pounds. It was later sold for the same amount despite renovations by CC Thampi through his company Skylight Dubai. The money later returned to Syntac, thus a round trip was established," SPP Singh was quoted as saying by ANI.
(with ANI and PTI inputs)
