Fille Photo: Robert Vadra, Son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi
Robert Vadra - the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, whose land deals are being probed in BJP-ruled Haryana and Rajasthan -- today said he was being subjected to a "political witch-hunt" and used as a "political tool".
Mr Vadra, 46, husband of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, said a distinction should be made between him as an individual conducting business like anyone else and the politics of his wife's family, "without constantly attempting to link the two".
He said he has always conducted business transparently in accordance with the law but was being "singled out" and "lies" were spread which made it difficult for him to come to terms with the "way I have been portrayed".
"Perception about me seems to have become so deeply embedded that it seems as if the truth does not matter to anyone anymore," he told PTI.
Mr Vadra's business deals in Haryana and Rajasthan are being probed following allegations of irregularities. While the Enforcement Directorate has sent a notice to his company, a one-man commission, the Justice SN Dhingra Commission, is looking into his land deals in Haryana.
Regarding the Enforcement Directorate notice, Mr Vadra said, "There is a clear-cut political witch-hunt.... The more they hound me, the more apparent it is becoming that they are using their attacks on me as a political tool whenever they need to divert public attention."
But he said he is yet to receive a notice from the judicial commission.
Mr Vadra's comments come days after Congress vice president and his brother-in-law Rahul Gandhi challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to institute investigations into what he called "the many allegations flung at me by the BJP and the RSS" and throw him in jail if they were proved.
"The BJP and RSS people have been flinging allegations at my family forever, on my grandmother, my father and my mother. I have been seeing this since I was a child," he had said.