GURGAON: Businessman Robert Vadra appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second consecutive day on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering probe into a 2008 land deal in Gurgaon between his company Skylight Hospitality and DLF.
Vadra, who reiterated to the media that he was a political target, was accompanied by wife Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress general secretary and MP from Wayanad.
Before going in for the second round of questioning, Vadra, referring to the Gandhi family, told reporters “hum kisi se darte nahin (we are not scared of anyone). “I will never call myself a soft target. If you (Centre) harass me or put pressure on me, I will rise stronger. We speak for the people, and that’s why we are being targeted. We are not afraid of anyone. We will keep fighting for the people. Whether Rahul Gandhi is stopped in the Parliament or I am stopped outside, we will continue to fight for truth and for the people. We are certainly targets, but we are not soft targets. We are hard targets and will keep becoming harder. Times keep changing,” he said.
Vadra also expressed frustration with the repeated summons, and said, “I was surprised to see the second summons as I have already appeared 15 times before the agency regarding the same case. I was questioned for 10 hours, and I gave 23,000 documents. I showed my statements from 2019 to the agency, and they are asking the same questions that I answered in 2019. I can just say that the agencies are being misused.”
ED had earlier summoned Vadra on April 8, but he did not appear. The case also involves former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is accused of favouring Vadra’s company in the deal for over 3.5 acres of land in Shikohpur that Skylight bought for Rs 7.5 crore. Four months later, it sold the plot to DLF for Rs 58 crore.
Congress has called ED’s actions politically motivated.
