Money laundering case : Vadra asks in Delhi HC for more time to respond

New Delhi : Robert Vadra Wednesday sought more time in the Delhi High Court to file his response to the Enforcement Directorate’s plea challenging his anticipatory bail in a money laundering case.

Justice Chander Shekhar granted two weeks’ time to Vadra, brother-in-law of Rahul Gandhi, to file his reply to the plea seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail and listed the matter for further hearing on September 26.

Vadra’s counsel said he was outside India when the court’s notice on the petition was served on him and he has returned on July 11.

Vadra is facing allegations of money laundering in the purchase of a London-based property at 12, Bryanston Square, worth 1.9 million pounds. The case is being probed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED, in its plea, has challenged a trial court’s April 1 order, which granted Vadra anticipatory bail.

The probe agency has sought to cancel the anticipatory bail on grounds that it required his custody as he was not cooperating in the investigation.

The high court had earlier also sought response of Manoj Arora, an employee of Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality LLP and co-accused in the case, on the agency’s plea seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail.

The plea, filed through ED prosecutor DP Singh, has challenged the trial court’s order, saying the special judge had failed to consider the settled position of the law that bail should not be “granted in a routine manner”.

The ED has contended that if Vadra is granted the blanket protection of bail, there is a likelihood that he may tamper with evidence and influence the witnesses in the case and that the trial court had failed to appreciate that he was a highly-influential person.

It has claimed that Vadra was “non-cooperative” and in spite of being given several opportunities to come clean on his alleged role in the case, he remained evasive.