ED grills Vadra for 7 hours in money laundering case for fifth time

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate on Friday questioned Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, for over seven hours in a money laundering case, for the fifth time.

The case relates to overseas ownership of undisclosed assets worth 1.9 million pounds.

Vadra arrived at the ED's Jamnagar office in central Delhi at 10.30 a.m. and left the agency's office at 7.20 p.m. He was allowed to go out for lunch for over an hour.

Earlier in the morning, scores of Congress workers gathered outside, raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He was questioned under sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Robert Vadra, who is the husband of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has faced more than 34 hours of questioning so far.

He was earlier questioned on February 6, 7, 9 and 20.

On February 2, the court granted him interim bail till February 16 and asked him to join the investigation on February 6.

Then on February 16, a Delhi court extended Robert Vadra's interim bail till March 2.

The ED has also lodged a money laundering case against his employee Manoj Arora after his role surfaced during an Income Tax Department probe in a 2015 anti-black money case involving absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

The financial probe agency has alleged that Arora was aware of Robert Vadra's overseas undeclared assets and was instrumental in arranging funds.

On February 12 and 13, Robert Vadra was also questioned by the ED in Jaipur in a land deal case in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

On February 15, the agency attached a Rs 4.43-crore house in Delhi's Sukhdev Vihar. The property was in the name of Robert Vadra's company Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd.