Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar also directed the agency to supply within five days the hard copies of the documents seized from Vadra during raids conducted at his offices last year
Robert Vadra
A Delhi court Monday refused to stay interrogation of Robert Vadra in a money laundering case, directing him to join the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) investigation on Tuesday. The court has posted Vadra's plea, seeking directions to stay the ED interrogation, for hearing on March 2. Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar also directed the agency to supply within five days the hard copies of the documents seized from Vadra during raids conducted at his offices last year.
Vadra, who is the brother-in-law of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, had said in the application moved by him on Saturday that the ED has been interrogating him based on seized documents and, therefore, their copies should be provided to him. Senior advocate K T S Tulsi, appearing for Vadra, alleged that the agency wants to speed up the investigation and they are losing their patience as elections are approaching.
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"ED is only interested in political campaign. They have given us documents in electronic form which is not opening. I am seeking a stay on interrogation till the documents are given to me," Tulsi said. The court refused and said, "that we cannot do." Tulsi told the court that under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Vadra was entitled to get a copy of the documents.
"I also should be able to read and understand the document. They show documents they want to rely on, not the ones that I want," he said. Special public prosecutor D P Singh, appearing for the agency, said that the ED can only give documents that were recovered from him, and not the entire documents which have been seized. Singh told the court that the seized documents run into 23,000 pages. On December 7 last year, the agency had carried out raids at Vadra's offices in Delhi.
The court said Vadra will join investigation before the ED after it took up his plea for hearing. Vadra is facing probe in cases relating to purchase of alleged illegal assets abroad and an alleged land scam in Bikaner, Rajasthan. Vadra has appeared before the ED for questioning on multiple occasions in Delhi and Jaipur. The court had on February 16 extended the interim bail granted to Vadra till March 2. Vadra had filed an anticipatory bail application in the case linked to allegations of money laundering in the purchase of a London-based property at 12, Bryanston Square worth 1.9 million pounds. The property is allegedly owned by him.
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