Swamy warns of trouble for Rahul over bank account, submarine kickbacks

Subramanian Swamy was the source of the complaint to the ministry of home affairs that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi held British citizenship. With the home ministry sending Rahul a notice on the citizenship issue on April 29, Swamy has now warned of fresh legal trouble for the Congress chief. The 'warning' is mostly based on old allegations and a potentially explosive new claim.

Taking to Twitter on Thursday, Swamy tweeted the Enforcement Directorate would “register FERA and money laundering cases for operating an illegal Barclays Bank account” and laundering kickbacks related to the Indian Navy's purchase of Scorpene submarines from France in 2005.

Swamy tweeted, “Bambino has another case awaiting him: ED to register FERA and money laundering cases for operating an illegal Barclay’s Bank Account and perhaps laundering Scorpine Submarine Kick Back with Eduardo Falerio’s son in law through Back Ops. MoF must not block the case.”

Bambino is the nickname Swamy uses for Rahul on Twitter. The reference to FERA appears to be inadvertent as the law was replaced by the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in 1999.

Barclays account

The new tweet by Swamy uses a well-honed approach the MP, a trenchant critic of the Nehru-Gandhi family, has adopted: Repeat allegations over a period of years. Swamy had first written to the Enforcement Directorate in February 2016 about Rahul “illegally” operating a current account with Barclays Bank under the name of 'Raul Vinci', the identity Rahul allegedly used abroad.

The letter in 2016 was addressed to Enforcement Directorate director Karnal Singh. Swamy claims in his letter the address given for the Barclays Bank account holder was the same address used by Rahul for his company Backops.

Swamy wrote in his letter, “This matter (of the Barclays Bank account) connects up with the issue of his citizenship and his owning a company”. Swamy had cited tax return documents for Backops for 2005-2006, which purportedly listed Rahul as a British citizen.

'Faleiro's son-in-law'

In 2015, when he had raised allegations of Rahul being a British citizen, Swamy had also mentioned Ulrik McKnight—a US national who was the son-in-law of former Union minister Eduardo Faleiro—had 35 per cent shares in Backops.

Scorpene scam

In 2006, the BJP had alleged irregularities in the contract to purchase six Scorpene class submarines from France. One of the key persons accused of facilitating kickbacks was Abhishek Verma, an arms dealer. In 2013, Swamy had alleged Verma was involved in the AgustaWestland helicopter scam and had ties to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul's mother and chief of the Congress at that time.

The tweet on Thursday appears to be the first time Swamy is targeting Rahul on the Scorpene submarine deal.