Priyanka flies to Jaipur to be with Robert Vadra ahead of questioning by ED

india

Updated: Feb 11, 2019 22:47 IST

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra landed in Jaipur late on Monday evening to accompany husband Robert Vadra and mother-in-law Maureen to the local Enforcement Directorate office Tuesday morning.

Robert Vadra and his mother had reached Jaipur earlier in the day, around the same time that Priyanka started out on a mega road show through the streets of Lucknow. The 15-km drive to the Congress headquarters in Uttar Pradesh capital had taken hours to negotiate, often with hundreds of supporters lining both sides of the road.

It was her first big public appearance after being appointed Congress general secretary incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh last month. By her side, were Congress president Rahul Gandhi and colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Hours after the roadshow, she took a flight to Jaipur to be with her husband when he appears before local ED officials probing his role in a case involving 275 acres of land in the Kolayat sub-division of Bikaner district

Ahead of leaving for Jaipur, Robert Vadra in a Facebook post asked the people of India to keep his “best friend, a perfect wife and best mother” safe as she started the roadshow in Lucknow .

Congress sources Priyanka will accompany her husband to the ED office on Tuesday, in a replay of a similar exercise on February 6 when Vadra was questioned by the ED for the first time in New Delhi in another money-laundering case.

Priyanka had then accompanied Vadra to the ED office where he was summoned to answer allegations of money laundering and left after dropping him off. That brief trip to the ED office in the heart of the national capital was designed to send a message, she later said.

On January 21, the Rajasthan high court had directed partners of Sky Light Hospitality Company, Robert Vadra and his mother to appear before Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 12 for questioning in the Bikaner land case. The high court, however, restrained the ED from arresting the partners.

After initial hearing on the petition of Sky Light Hospitality on December 18, 2018, the HC had ordered that no coercive action shall be taken against the company. Along with this, notices were issued to the Ministry of Finance and Enforcement Directorate (ED).