ED grills Vadra for 8 hrs, more in store
The Enforcement Directorate ( ED) on Thursday questioned Robert Vadra for more than eight hours for the second consecutive day in connection with a money laundering case.
Sources said that Mr Vadra was required to rejoin the probe as he needed to answer more questions on allegedly acquiring immovable assets in the United Kingdom.
Mr Vadra, they said, was confronted with documents that the agency has collected, including some allegedly linked to absconding defence dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
Mr Vadra is expected to be questioned again on either Friday or Saturday.
Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, was questioned for about six hours by the Enforcement Directorate ( ED) on Thursday in connection with a money- laundering probe against him in the INX Media case.
Sources said Karti was summoned to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act ( PMLA). He was grilled a number of times in the case in the past. Karti arrived at the ED office in Jamnagar House at about 11 am and left shortly before 6 pm. He took about an hour- long break for lunch.
It is understood that Karti was confronted with certain statements of the other accused and witnesses in the case. Sources said he might be called again for questioning. The ED had attached Karti’s assets worth an estimated ` 54 crore, located in India and abroad, in the case last year. The central probe agency had registered the PMLA case on the basis of a CBI FIR and had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board ( FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of ` 305 crore in 2007, when P. Chidambaram was the finance minister.
It had registered an enforcement case information report ( ECIR), the ED’s equivalent to a police FIR, against the accused named in the CBI complaint, including Karti, INX Media and its directors — Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. Karti was arrested on February 28 last year by the CBI, the other Central agency investigating the case, for allegedly taking money to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media in 2007.
He was granted bail subsequently. The agency has alleged that Karti received money from INX Media, using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of FIPB conditions to receive investments from Mauritius.