Congress, BJP spar over Vadra's benami property

Congress president defends Robert Vadra, says charges against him are a part of Centre’s bid for a ‘Congress-free India’.

The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party were on Tuesday engaged in a political slugfest over charges that Robert Vadra may have bought a ‘benami’ property in London with his mother-in-law and Congress president Sonia Gandhi attacking the government and dismissing the charges as “false”.

Perhaps coming out in open defence of her son-in-law for the first time, she also dared the government to order an impartial probe if there is something so that truth will come out. She said everyday false allegations were made as part of a conspiracy as part of the Modi government’s bid to make the country Congress-free.

The BJP hit back at Gandhi saying her defence of Vadra has exposed the “farce” that he was merely a private person and mocked her demand for a probe saying the party has earlier dubbed such inquiries as vendetta.

In a related fall-out of the controversy, Congress spokesperson Poona Shehzad Poonawalla on Tuesday wrote to the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate demanding a probe into the alleged links between a BJP leader Siddarth Nath Singh and an alleged arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.  According to news reports, Bhandari is said to have facilitated the purchase of the London property for Vadra.

Poonawalla claimed that call data records of Bhandari showed that Singh had made 450 calls to Bhandari “within a short span of time”.

Singh shot back saying he had no financial dealings with Bhandari “except knowing him socially” and offered to face any probe in the matter. He did not know Bhandari was an arms dealer till the raids on him, he added.

The war of words erupted following news reports on Tuesday on the basis of  purported papers seized by the IT department during searches last month on the arms dealer’s premises.  The raids had led to a trail of emails allegedly between Vadra and his assistant on the one hand and the dealer’s aide on the other regarding the purchase of a London house for approximately Rs 19 crore which was subsequently said to have been sold.

Vadra’s legal firm has denied that he owned the London property directly or indirectly.  It also denied that Vadra had any business ties with the arms dealer or his aide.

Asked about news reports on Vadra, Gandhi shot back, “This is a conspiracy for Congress-free country. What is the meaning of Congress-free India. Everyday they make new excuses. They level false charges. If there is something, then there should be an impartial probe. Everything will become clear,” she said.

At the AICC briefing, Congress leader Anand Sharma derided Singh’s description of relationship with Bhandari as “social” and attacked the government’s “dirty tricks department” accusing it of selective leaks to damage the party.

Alleging that the Prime Minister’s Office was involved in such tactics, Sharma said all this was an attempt to “divert” people’s attention from failures including a “total collapse” of the economy.

On the BJP side, its media department in-charge Shrikant Sharma said, “The Congress chief’s comments have exposed the farce that Vadra is merely a private person. It has established that he is the Gandhi family and Gandhi family is him.”

Party MP Kirit Somaiya said the links between Vadra and Bhandari were nothing but “suspicious”.

Siddarth Nath Singh, who faced a barrage of questions from the media on his friendship with Bhandari, said he knew him for many years because both their children went to the same school and the relationship and calls were “social” in nature.

“I didn’t know that he is an arms dealer. My children and his children went to the same school. Till the raids (at Bhandari’s place) I did not know about him (as an arms dealer). I came to know about it from the media and since then there has been no calls. Neither he called nor did I call him up,” he said.

He dismissed reports that he had made 450 calls. “Not even 100 or 50 calls.  Much less than that,” he said adding the last call was made two or three months ago.

Asked if he had any financial dealings with Bhandari, Singh said, “absolutely not”.

“I am open to any investigation. I welcome it. But Congress has refused to answer charges (on Vadra) and it is an attempt to divert from the issue of Vadra buying a property in London,” he said.