The Enforcement Directorate has arrested NRI businessman CC Thampi in connection with a case against businessman Robert Vadra and absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari for the acquisition of alleged illegal assets abroad.
They said Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was alleged to have acquired the asset. A few purported emails between him and Bhandari regarding its renovation were part of the evidence in the case. The agency officials claimed that Thampi met Vadra several times. But Vadra told the ED that he only met him onboard a flight a few years ago.

It is understood that his arrest and subsequent custodial grilling will unravel the “missing links” in the case under which the ED has charged Vadra for acquiring illegal assets abroad in coordination with Bhandari.

Thampi, during his earlier grilling session with the ED, had claimed that Vadra had stayed at Bryanston Square in London. Vadra, in his statement made to the agency, had denied Thampi’s claim, the officials said. The agency arrested Thampi on Friday under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after he was summoned in the case, the officials said.

Thampi has been charged by the agency in the past in a case of alleged illegal hawala dealings and a land purchase case in 2017 in contravention of the Foreign Exchange Management Act .