Vadra has denied owning any property in London directly or indirectly
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against businessman Robert Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a money laundering case linked to UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari, official sources said. The prosecution complaint has been filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi, they added.
This is the second money laundering chargesheet against Vadra. In July, the ED chargesheeted him in a separate case related to alleged irregularities in a land deal in Shikohpur, Haryana.
Vadra, 56, has been questioned multiple times by the ED in connection with the Bhandari-linked case. Bhandari, whose extradition request was rejected by a UK court, was declared a fugitive economic offender by a Delhi court in July. The 63-year-old arms consultant fled to London in 2016 soon after the Income-Tax Department raided his premises in Delhi.
The ED filed a money laundering case against Bhandari and others in February 2017, based on an Income-Tax Department chargesheet filed under the 2015 anti-black money law. The agency has since filed two chargesheets in the matter and has been probing Bhandari’s alleged links with Vadra, particularly concerning a London property.
According to the ED’s 2023 chargesheet, Bhandari allegedly acquired a house at 12, Bryanston Square, London, in 2009 and had it renovated “as per the directions of Vadra,” with Vadra purportedly providing the funds for the renovation.
Vadra has denied owning any property in London directly or indirectly.
