West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday extended her support to businessman Robert Vadra, who was grilled by the Enforcement Directorate for nearly four hours in Delhi in connection with allegations of money laundering.
Terming the development as deliberate mischief by the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee said, “There is no serious case, nothing. Just sending the notice casually to everybody. So we stand together, we are united, we are together. We will walk together.”
Banerjee, who had recently staged a sit-in protest in Kolkata against the Narendra Modi government’s attempt to harass Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, said that she will be in Delhi next week, when opposition parties will firm up a cohesive retaliatory plan on the issue.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
There is no serious case, nothing. Just sending the notice casually to everybody. So we stand together, we are united, we are together. We will walk together.
This is the second time Banerjee has spoken in favour of the Congress. Earlier this week, when Congress President Rahul Gandhi extended his support to Banerjee over the CBI’s attempted crackdown against Kumar, she had said that it was ‘our duty to work together’ and ‘work with the Congress at the national level.’
In the money laundery case, Vadra, Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law, is accused of purchasing posh flats including villas in an expensive part of London when the Congress was in power between 2005 and 2010. Vadra has denied owning any properties in London.
On Wednesday, it was his wife and the newly appointed AICC General Secretary in-charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, who accompanied Vadra to the ED office in south Delhi. She had later told reporters that she stood firmly with her husband.