Fresh trouble for Robert Vadra over benami deals in London

According to a report, an investigation has been initiated by the government against Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi over a benami dealing of property in London.

An NDTV report says the investigation is to find out if a controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari had any transaction with Vadra in 2009 over a real estate property in London.  

It is reported that the investigations was initiated following two previous investigations. The reports mention that there were emails exchanged by Vadra and his assistant Manoj Arora and a relative of Bhandari.

The two reports were prepared following series of raids in Bhandari’s properties by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in April. The reports suggest exchange of emails between the two parties (Vadra and Arora, and Sumit Chadda, a relative of Bhandari) over payments for a London mansion bought for ₹ 19 crores in October 2009.   

While Vadra's lawyers have denied any such dealings, the Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala has stated that "Robert Vadra has been systematically prosecuted and hounded by Congress opponents", the NDTV report says.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya in an interview to NDTV has demanded a thorough investigation.

Bhandari owns Offset India Solutions (OIS) and all dealings with the government were stalled following an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report in 2014.

The government is already investigating Vadra for land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan. Vadra has so far maintained that he is not engaged in any wrongful transactions in any of these cases against him.