BJP leaders alleged that a trail of e-mails between the two suggests that the arms dealer had financed Vadra's air travel and also furnished his London property
The Congress on Wednesday termed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ministers targeting Robert Vadra as 'witch-hunt' and 'a product of revengeful politics'. BJP ministers had attacked the main opposition party over the alleged link between party president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Vadra and fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari. BJP leaders alleged that a trail of e-mails between the two suggests that the arms dealer had financed Vadra's air travel and also furnished his London property.
Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said Vadra's lawyer had distanced from the e-mails and a property in London that was being shown as a link between him and Bhandari. Singhvi claimed the absconding arms dealer was closer to current functionaries in the government. The defence ministry in an official release in 2015 counted the conclusion of Pilatus deal as an achievement. Defence Ministry even suggested that it has ordered 38 more Pilatus aircraft from the same supplier.
Earlier, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also questioned Congress' silence over the issue, saying that the party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul's silence will be construed as acceptance of charges. "Why has Rahul Gandhi remained silent? No tweets on the flats getting refurbished, no tweet on his brother-in-law getting money. Is the Congress leadership, by remaining silence, suggesting that they saw it but looked the other way? Can somebody from Congress cannot come and give this platitude, but tell us how this happened," the minister had said.
The party even released an RTI reply issued by Gujarat government detailing travels of Prime Minister Modi between 2003 and 2007 as chief minister of the state, mentioning 100 trips through chartered planes. "These trips, are clearly trips by a constitutional functionary, position holder, they are provided for by private persons and we do not have any accounts of them up to date," Singhvi claimed.
Bhandari residence was raided in April 2016. Subsequent to the action, his passport was impounded in June 2016. But miraculously he escaped abroad in December 2016, despite seizure of his travel papers. The party also released a photograph of Bhandari with the minister and TDP leader Gajapati Raju.
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