Robert Vadra appears before ED for another day of questioning in money laundering probe

New Delhi, Feb 7 Robert Vadra, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law, showed up before the Enforcement Directorate for the second day on Thursday in connection with a probe into allegations that he laundered money to purchase illegal foreign assets.

Vadra, who was barbecued for five-and-a half hours for the first time in the case on Wednesday, arrived at the ED office in Jamnagar House in central Delhi at about 11:25 am, around a hour after his team of legal advisors.

Officials said Vadra was required to rejoin the probe on Thursday as he needed to answer more questions on allegedly acquiring immovable assets in United Kingdom.

His statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as was done Wednesday, they included.

He was asked about a dozen questions by a team of three ED officials, including the investigating officer of the case.

His appearance before the ED on Wednesday acquired political overtones with his wife Priyanka Gandhi, named Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, going with him to the investigating agency's office. She assumed responsibility of her new post at the Congress' national headquarters on Akbar Road after that.

"He is my husband, he is my family...I support my family," Priyanka Gandhi said in a show of support to Vadra, who came back from London on Wednesday.

This is the first time when that Vadra is showing up before any probe agency in connection with alleged dubious financial dealings.

On February 2, he was directed by a Delhi court to show up before the central probe agency and cooperate in the probe after he knocked at its door seeking anticipatory bail in the money laundering case.

Vadra has precluded the charges from claiming having illicit outside resources and named them a political witch chase against him. He said he was being "nagged and annoyed" to subserve political ends.

His legal advisor said Wednesday night that Vadra had answered to each question put to him.

"All charges against him are incorrect. We will coordinate with the agency 100 percent. He will come at whatever point he is called," lawyer Suman Jyoti Khaitan told reporters.

The ED case against Vadra relates to allegations of money laundering in the purchase of a London-based property situated at 12, Bryanston Square worth 1.9 million GBP (British pounds), which is supposedly claimed by him.

The office also told the court that it has gotten data about different new properties in London which belong to Vadra. These include two houses, one worth 5 million GBP and the other 4 million GBP, six other flats and more properties.

In December a year ago, the ED conducted raids in the case and grilled his close aide Manoj Arora, a representative of Skylight Hospitality LLP, a firm connected to Vadra, as well as others.

The office told the court that it recorded a PMLA body of evidence against Arora after his job sprung up amid the test of another case by the Income Tax Department under the 2015 enemy of dark cash enactment against slipping away resistance merchant Sanjay Bhandari.

It claimed that the London-based property was purchased by Bhandari for 1.9 million GBP and sold in 2010 for the same amount in spite of bringing about extra costs of roughly 65,900 GBP on its renovation.

The BJP seized on the questioning of Vadra on Wednesday to attack the Congress and asserted he got kickbacks from an oil and defence deals took place during the UPA regime.

Vadra is also expected to be available before the ED on February 12 in Jaipur in another tax evasion case identified with a land scam in Bikaner. The Rajasthan High Court had guided him to collaborate with the agency in the case.