New Delhi: On Monday, a Delhi court will likely pass an order on the anticipatory bail petition of Robert Vadra and his close aide Manoj Arora. Last Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate had sought custodial interrogation of Vadra stating that there was a risk of the investigation getting tampered. Earlier, the court had reserved order on Vadra's bail plea for April 1 and extended his interim protection from arrest till the same in the two money laundering cases, one in a petro deal and the other in a defence deal. Vadra is facing money laundering allegations for the purchase of a London based property worth 1.9 million pounds. The ED has described the case as a classic example of money laundering where several shell companies were used to hide bribes that were used to buy expansive real estates abroad.

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Here it is to be noted that the petro deal involves a complex which ONGC decided to build as under special economic zone in 2008. ONGC gave the contract to build a part of the complex to Samsung which hired a Dubai-based company called Santech International FZC, owned by one Sanjay Bhandari. The contract was awarded to Samsung in December 2008 and the company paid Santech US $ 49,90,000 in June 2009. The Santech then purchased a property in London at 12 Bryanston Square. However, the property was registered under another company named Vortex Private Limited. Santech transferred 1.9 million pound sterling in Vortex account. In 2008, Sanjay Bhandari's newly floated comapny named Offset Solutions was hired by Pilatus for consultations.  ED claims, in total 7,50,000 Swiss Franc were paid by Pilatus to Bhandari's company.

To be noted that this Vortez Pvt. was bought by Sky Lite Investments FZE Dubai which is controlled by C Thampi, reportedly a close aide of Robert Vadra. Now ED has alleged money laundering case against Vadra after the agency accessed mail of Sanjay Bhandari, Summit Chadha (London based relative of Sanjay), Manoj Arora and Robert Vadra. The mails revealed that Vadra had an interest in the property and was monetering its renovation work. The Pilatus defence deal also involves the same process of several shell companies including Sanjay Bhandari. In the deal, 75 Pilatus PC-7 basic trainer aircraft were purchased for Indian Air Force. 

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