New Delhi, Oct.7 (ANI): Civil society activist-turned politician Arvind Kejriwal and Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra verbally sparred with each other Sunday, days after Kejriwal and his India Against Corruption (IAC) colleagues charged the latter of illegally profitting from his association with DLF, one of India's largest building conglomerates.
Both said that if the matter is to reach the courts of the country, they would not hesitate to appear, and defend their respective stances on the matter.
While Vadra dismissed as "utterly false, entirely baseless and defamatory" the allegations over his property dealings with DLF, and added he was saddened by the attempt of activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan to malign him and his family to "gain cheap publicity", Kejriwal reiterated that Vadra has not answered questions on his links with DLF and described the clarifications of the realty major as "half truths and lies".
Reacting to Vadra's remarks that he and Prashant Bhushan were maligning him and his family to "gain cheap publicity", Kejriwal said, "Robert Vadra has questioned our motives that is not important. He has not replied to the questions that we have raised."
Vadra said: "I am a private law abiding citizen who has been engaged in business over the last 21 years. The allegations levelled against me by Kejriwal and Bhushan are utterly false, entirely baseless and defamatory."
Vadra, 43, said he was "saddened by the attempt of Kejriwal and Bhushan to deliberately misrepresent numbers contained in my financial statements, manufacture lies against me and malign me and my family in order to gain cheap publicity for themselves and for the launch of their political party".
He said: "My business transactions are fully reflected in financial statements filed before appropriate government authorities in compliance with the law. They are available in the public domain to anyone interested in knowing the truth." His statement came a day after he broke his silence over the controversy surrounding his property dealings, saying he could "handle all the negativity".
Kejriwal earlier today described as "half truths and lies" the clarifications of reality major DLF on the allegations that Vadra was given property at throw away prices for government favours.
DLF, on its part, yesterday rejected the allegations that it had given unsecured loans to Vadra as a 'quid pro quo' for favours and said it had transparent dealing with him as an individual entrepreneur.
"DLF has issued a response. It is full of half truths and lies. A lot of information has been suppressed. But does Vadra stand by DLF response or does he have another version? I would appreciate his version," Kejriwal said.
He said he will not be able to respond to the specific issues in DLF's response today as his team is working on it.
"I had gone through the DLF response curiously. It is clear that there are a lot of information that they have suppressed...It will not be correct for me to respond now. We will issue a detailed response tomorrow," Kejriwal added.
"I just want to know if Robert Vadra has the same response or if he has a different version. He did not respond to any of the specific issues we have raised," Kejriwal said. In a statement yesterday, DLF had said it had given Rs 65 crore as "business advances" out of which Rs 15 crore was fully refunded and Rs 50 crore was used for purchase of land. Rejecting the allegations made by Kejriwal and Bhushan that the company favoured Vadra, DLF had said it neither received any undue benefit from any state governments nor was it alloted any land by Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan governments. (ANI)