Robert Vadra 'aide' says ready to join ED probe, gets anticipatory bail

NEW DELHI: Manoj Arora, alleged aide to businessman Robert Vadra, informed a special court on Friday that he is ready to join investigation in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate. The court gave him interim relief from arrest till January 19. Vadra is Congress president Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law.
The agency had sought the issuance of a non-bailable warrant against Arora whereas the latter filed a plea for anticipatory bail.
Senior lawyer KTS Tulsi and advocates Tanvir Ahmed Mir, Dhruv Gupta and Ishan Shivakumar submitted, "The election is approaching ... (ED) want to file a case by which they can malign the opposition. I'm willing to appear before them provided that I have protection from coercive action."
The case, it was submitted, was the result of a "political vendetta" and ED was trying to extract a "false confession".
The ED's present enforcement case information report, Tulsi said, was intended to circumvent the Rajasthan high court's orders through which the petitioner had already got relief. It was submitted that a "related case" in Rajasthan over the same allegations had already been filed by the ED.
"As (ED) couldn't find anything in the purchase of land (in Rajasthan), I was accused of money laundering. I have already handed over all documents to (ED)," Tulsi said on behalf of Arora.
Arguing against the defence, special prosecutor D P Singh and advocate Nitesh Rana argued that "forced confessions" shouldn't even be spoken about. "The Rajasthan proceedings are related to land purchase there. Arora did not even bother to join the probe though the first notice was given on December 7," they submitted.
Following heated arguments, Arora's counsels stated that he was ready to join investigation if protection from arrest was given.