The Prime Minister’s Office(PMO) has made it clear that there was no need to probe the allegations and charges of financial irregularities levelled against Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, since they are based on hearsay and media reports.
The submission by Dheeraj Gupta, an official in the PMO, was made before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court which has been considering a PIL filed in this regard. According to the PIL filed by social activist Nutan Thakur, the PMO didn’t seem interested in investigating the charges against the young businessman.
However, the affidavit, filed by the Joint Secretary-rank officer, said that the financial transactions that involved Vadra was a personal matter between two individuals and it was purely a business transaction. It was also pointed out that the parties concerned had already explained their position and hence the allegations were apparently “false and based on hearsay”.
Further, the PMO has claimed that the allegations by Nutan were made for gaining publicity and political mileage.
She had prayed before the court that an inquiry be ordered against Vadra for his deals with a private real estate company. Vadra’s deals had been “exposed” by Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal and it had greatly embarrassed the Congress leadership owing to the former’s ties with the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Earlier after the scandal broke out, real estate major DLF and Vadra had strenuously denied the charges. Also, the Congress-led UPA Government had refused to take cognisance of the charges against Vadra.
Nutan, on her part, has maintained that the PMO had refused to clarify the action taken on her complaints against Vadra. According to the petitioner’s counsel Ashok Pandey, the court is expected to take up the petition on Thursday.