Robert Vadra (File Photo) Robert Vadra (File Photo)

Robert Vadra Friday moved a Delhi court seeking anticipatory bail in a money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). A lawyer from the prosecution team confirmed that Vadra has sought anticipatory bail in the case in which his close aide Manoj Arora was granted interim protection from arrest till February 6. Vadra’s anticipatory bail application is likely to be heard by the court tomorrow.

On January 19, the ED had told the court that Arora was cooperating in the probe. Arora had earlier alleged before the court that the case was foisted on him by the NDA government out of “political vendetta”. However, the ED had refuted the allegations, asking that “should no authority investigate any political bigwig because that will be called a political vendetta?”

The agency had told the court that it lodged the money laundering case against Arora after his role came up during the probe of another case by the Income Tax Department under the newly-enacted Black Money Act and tax law against absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

Arora, an employee of Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality LLP, was a key person in the case and he was aware of the latter’s overseas undeclared assets and was instrumental in arranging funds, ED had alleged.

In December last year, the ED had conducted searches at three locations in Delhi connected to Vadra’s close aides in connection with financial assets held abroad. The searches were made by the ED two days after it issued summons to Vadra’s aide in connection with the money laundering probe. Vadra had called it a “political witch hunt”.

The central probe agency had registered a criminal case in connection with the land deal in 2015, taking cognisance of a clutch of FIRs and chargesheets filed by the Rajasthan Police after the local tehsildar of Bikaner complained about alleged forgery in the allotment of land in the area, considered sensitive due to its proximity to the Indo-Pak border.

(Inputs from PTI)

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