ED seeks issuance of NBW against Manoj Arora

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday filed an application with a Delhi court seeking issuance of an open-ended non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Manoj Arora for his alleged role in a money laundering case. Arora, allegedly, is a close aide of Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. ED’s special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana filed the submission before special judge Arvind Kumar, stating that Arora had failed to appear for questioning before the agency despite repeated summons. The matter will come up for hearing on 8 January. The ED, in its prayer, stated that Arora was aware of overseas undeclared assets of Vadra and played a key role in arranging funds for properties that were brought in London. The ED claimed that proceeds of crime were used to channelise funds from the UAE to buy residential property at 12, Bryanston Square, London, worth 1.9 million pounds, allegedly owned by Vadra. “Vadra was beneficially controlling the property at 12, Bryanston Square, London, which was valued at 1.9 million pounds, and not only executing renovation work of this property, but also arranging funds for the same,” the agency claimed. According to the agency, the property was bought by Sanjay Bhandari for 1.9 million pounds and sold in 2010 for the same amount despite incurring additional expenses of 65,900 pounds on its renovation.