Income Tax officials took away 23,000 documents from my office: Robert Vadra

A day after being grilled by the Income Tax officials, Robert Vadra on Wednesday said that the I-T sleuths have taken away 23,000 documents from his office. Vadra said that the Income Tax officials now have more information about him than he has in his office. “Every question they asked was answered clearly. There is no tax evasion,” Vadra was quoted as saying by ANI.

Vadra was questioned by Income Tax officials on Monday and Tuesday. He was summoned by the tax department but he did not turn up citing Covid-19 restrictions, following which tax sleuths reached his Sukhdev Vihar residence in Delhi. Vadra, son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, is facing probe under the benami laws.

On Monday, Vadra was questioned for about eight hours and his statement was recorded under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act. As per PTI, the questioning was related to the purchase of some land parcels by a firm linked to Vadra in Bikaner in which the Enforcement Directorate had filed a money laundering case in 2015.

Following the registration of case, the ED questioned Vadra and attached assets worth Rs 4.62 crore of his firm Sky Light Hospitality in 2019. The ED then shared case documents of the probe along with that of possession of some alleged undisclosed assets abroad with the tax department for action under the anti-benami law, PTI reported citing sources.

After tax officials left his residence on Tuesday, Robert Vadra interacted with the media and said that it was a political vendetta. “I don’t want to go into political issues but they (the government) are digressing from real issues…like the farmers issue,” he said.