Union Minister of State For Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said the finance ministry is not putting any pressure on the Enforcement Directorate, a specialised investigation agency under the department of revenue of the finance ministry, to nail Robert Vadra, husband of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi. This, after Vadra was grilled by the ED for the second consecutive day on February 7. The questioning that started around 11.30am in the ED office in New Delhi went till 9.15pm.
“The ED is going by the merits of the case. They are not in a hurry or under any pressure. This is not a government strategy to put someone behind bars. Government has no vested interest in this particular case. If the man [Vadra] has committed an offence, he will be punished. Let the ED take a call on it. Ours is an honest government with honest intentions. We are fully focussed on working tirelessly for the people of the country. We don’t do political witch-hunt,” said Shukla to THE WEEK.
Vadra, during the questioning on both the days, answered some 80 questions relating to properties owned by him in India and abroad. He also talked about his association with others accused in money laundering cases. Vadra’s revelations were recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, an act enacted by Parliament during the NDA government in 2002 to thwart money laundering.
Vadra has to now appear before ED officers in Jaipur in connection with another probe on February 12.
Congress's Rajya Sabha MP B.K. Hariprasad said the questioning of Vadra is a part of a ploy by the Union government to divert attention from crucial issues affecting the people of the country. “The ED and the income tax department are alliance partners of the government. The Congress party has nothing to worry. There will be a public backlash against the government for all this unnecessary questioning and harassment,” said Hariprasad to THE WEEK.
In yet another money laundering probe, former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram appeared before the ED on February 8. He was grilled even earlier. Chidambaram’s son, Karti, was arrested on February 28, 2018, by the Central Bureau of Investigation for allegedly taking money to expedite the foreign investment promotion board clearance to INX Media, in 2007, when Chidambaram was the finance minister. The ED, in 2018, had attached Karti's properties in India and abroad, worth Rs 54 crore.
“All that the Union government is doing against Chidambaram and his family is wrong. He [Chidambaram] has not committed anything wrong,” said H. Vasantha Kumar, Congress working president in Tamil Nadu, to THE WEEK. “Chidambaram enjoys immense popularity in Tamil Nadu. The Congress is a united force in the state and he is our pillar of strength. Any unwarranted action against Chidambaram will not be tolerated,” said Kumar.
