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Friday 5 October 2012

Sonia defends Robert Vadra, challenges Kejriwal to make formal complaint

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Sonia defends Robert Vadra, challenges Kejriwal to make formal complaint
Clean Media Correspondent

New Delhi, Oct 05 (CMC) Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday defended son-in-law Robert Vadra over allegations made by Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan that he was favoured by realty major DLF and challenged Kejriwal to make formal complaint, reports said.

Gandhi also asked party members to strongly rebut the charges, according to reports.
Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal and his colleague Prashant Bhushan alleged that Vadra bought property in Gurgaon and other places at rates much below market rates and sold them at huge profit.

"Robert Vadra acquired properties worth hundreds of crores (of rupees) from nothing. What is the source of these funds," asked Kejriwal. He distributed scanned copies of documentary evidence to back his claim.

"In the last four years, Robert Vadra has gone on a property buying binge and has purchased at least 31 properties mostly in and around New Delhi, which even at the time of their purchase were worth several hundred crores (of rupees)," Bhushan alleged.

Bhushan said the balance sheets of five companies set up by Vadra and his mother show that the "total share capital of these companies was just Rs.50 lakh".

"This massive property buying spree by the son-in-law of the ruling dynasty in the country gives rise to several important questions," he said.

"The story had come out in the Economic Times earlier. This is an old strategy of Kejriwal... Vadra had explained the position at the time... He pays his income tax and has a right to live as he wants. It is unfair to drag the Congress into it," said Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit.

"Why should anyone have to answer to anyone about any property they have unless there is anything illegal about it," said Dikshit, terming the allegations "wild and completely unfair".

43-year-old Vadra, married to Priyanka Gandhi, was not in the capital and sources close to him said there was no reaction for the moment.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said that these are "baseless, misconceived and utterly irresponsible" allegations.

"Coming ahead of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections, it shows that the so-called civil society groups are morphing themselves as a political party but it is nothing more than a B-Team of the BJP," he told reporters.

A DLF spokesperson said the business relationship with Vadra is "completely transparent" and was conducted to "highest standards of ethics".

Kejriwal and Bhusan claimed an analysis of the balance sheets and audit reports of the five companies run by Vadra showed that they had no income from any legitimate business activity except the interest derived from the DLF's loans.

2 comments:

  1. Congress has either no face to defend itself or it does not want to do so!

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  2. Large land deals in India are never straight forward. Give and take benefits in excessive quantum is the norm. Politicians and those with connections reach quid pro quo deals. The buyer gets land cheap and then ensures the seller gets compensated by pulling strings and getting licenses, approvals etc or land allocated elsewhere at cheap rates.

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