CBI Court refuses to exempt Robert Vadra from appearing before ED in money laundering case

A Special CBI Court today refused to exempt Robert Vadra from appearing before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in relation to the investigation in a money laundering case..The Court has directed the ED to supply hard copies of the documents seized by it to Vadra within five days..In the meantime, Vadra has been given soft copies of the documents in a hard disk..CBI Judge Arvind Kumar stated that the court cannot stay the investigation in the ongoing money laundering case..As per the Court’s direction, Vadra will appear before ED for further investigation at 10.30 am on February 26..Vadra is facing an ED probe into charges of money laundering in purchasing a property in London worth 1.9 million pound..Vadra had moved the Court last week, seeking supply of copies of all the documents seized from his office during a raid conducted in December. In the interim, he had prayed for a stay on his appearance before the ED..Senior Advocate KTS Tulsi, appearing for Vadra, argued that under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, his client was entitled to get a copy of the documents as a matter of natural justice..He also stated that the documents given to Vadra at the time of the interrogation are illegible..“I also should be able to read and understand the document. They show documents they want to rely on, not the ones that I want (to use to give an answer).”.He thus sought for a stay on his appearance till all documents are supplied to him..“I am not asking for stay of investigation. I waited long enough and did not want to create an impression that he was not willing to join the investigation.”, Tulsi said..Special Public Prosecutor DP Singh clarified that the ED can only give documents that were recovered from him, and not all the documents that have been seized..He said that some of the documents were in electronic format, and some hard copies were seized. He informed the court that the documents run into 23,000 pages..The Court thus asked ED to provide Vadra with a soft copy of the documents in the meantime, while directing it to supply hard copies within 5 days..Th matter will be heard next on March 2.