Targeted for being part of Gandhi family, will soon join politics: Robert Vadra amid ED grilling

'I feel that people don't believe in the agencies anymore because everyone in the country has realised that the ED and other agencies are being misused to put pressure on those who expose the government's wrongdoings', Vadra said.

New Delhi: As he was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second consecutive day in a Haryana land-deal case, Robert Vadra, husband of senior Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Wednesday claimed that he is being targeted because he is part of Gandhi family and things would have been different had he been part of the BJP.

He also said that he will soon join politics, as he has almost become an activist. On Tuesday, he was questioned for around five hours in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the land deal in Shikohpur.

Vadra, and brother-in-law of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, reached the ED office around 11 AM along with Priyanka. Both exchanged hugs, as Vadra entered the office for questioning.

Priyanka waited at the visitors' room at 'Pravartan Bhawan', the ED headquarters, and returned home with Vadra when was allowed to go for lunch at around 1:10 PM. Vadra returned to the ED office for questioning in the afternoon.

"I am part of the Gandhi family, who always fights for the people. Obviously, the BJP has to go for (target) the Gandhi family and me. They have also charge-sheeted my family -- my mother-in-law Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. "The more you trouble us, the stronger we become... We will fight anything that comes our way," Vadra was quoted by PTI as saying.

"I feel that people don't believe in the agencies anymore because everyone in the country has realised that the ED and other agencies are being misused to put pressure on those who expose the government's wrongdoings. The government is trying to create a divide between Hindus and Muslims. All of this is done to distract from the real issues," he alleged.

He also said people would like to see him in politics, as he has "become the voice of the people".

"Everybody who is hopeful of becoming a chief minister or wants to join politics is always troubled by agencies unless you join the BJP...No BJP leader or minister will be summoned by the agencies," he said while claiming that the BJP government in Haryana has given him a clean chit in the case as "no wrongdoing has happened".

When asked about Vadra’s questioning, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was quoted by ANI as saying, “it is his personal matter. He is capable of giving replies. The party has no say in it.”

The case relates to a land deal of February 2008 where Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, which is linked to Vadra, purchased 3.5 acre land in Shikohpur from Onkareshwar Properties at Rs 7.5 crore and in September 2012, sold it to realty major DLF for Rs 58 crore. Bhupinder Hooda-led Congress government was in power in Haryana when both the deals took place.

In October 2012, IAS officer Ashok Khemka, then Director General of land consolidation and land records-cum-inspector general of registration in Haryana, cancelled mutation, claiming that the transaction was violative of rules and regulations. A case was registered by Haryana Police in 2018 and later ED filed a money laundering case.