ED arrests Vadra close aide in illegal foreign assets case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 20

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested NRI businessman CC Thampi in connection with a case against businessman Robert Vadra and absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari for the acquisition of alleged illegal assets abroad.

Officials in the ED alleged that Thampi controlled Dubai-based company Sky Light. In 2009, Bhandari’s firm Santech FZE purchased a London-based property from a private company, which was acquired by Sky Light.

They said Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was alleged to have acquired the asset. A few purported emails between him and Bhandari regarding its renovation were part of the evidence in the case. The agency officials claimed that Thampi met Vadra several times. But Vadra told the ED that he only met him onboard a flight a few years ago.

Thampi, during his earlier grilling session with the ED, had claimed that Vadra had stayed at Bryanston Square in London. Vadra, in his statement made to the agency, had denied Thampi’s claim, the officials said. The agency arrested Thampi on Friday under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after he was summoned in the case, the officials said.

It is understood that his arrest and subsequent custodial grilling will unravel the “missing links” in the case under which the ED has charged Vadra for acquiring illegal assets abroad in coordination with Bhandari.

Thampi has been charged by the agency in the past in a case of alleged illegal hawala dealings and a land purchase case in 2017 in contravention of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

A show-cause notice under FEMA had been issued to Thampi for the alleged violation of foreign exchange laws to the tune of over Rs 1,000 crore in the purchase of vast tracts of land in Kerala.