OpIndia.com had exposed links between Rahul Gandhi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari through dubious land deals between Rahul Gandhi and HL Pahwa who was in turn financed by CC Thampi. A political storm had broken out after the expose with BJP leader and Minister Smriti Irani holding a press conference based on the story.
The fulcrum of the expose by OpIndia.com was a land deal between Rahul Gandhi and one HL Pahwa. Rahul Gandhi had bought land from Pahwa, who also regularly deals with Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. As discovered by OpIndia, Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had bought several lands from HL Pahwa only to later sell them back to Pahwa at a much-inflated price. At the time of this transaction, Enforcement Directorate files recovered during their raid on HL Pahwa has confirmed that Pahwa did not have the cash reserves for the high-value purchase of lands. To make good on that payment, HL Pahwa was financed by one CC Thampi who has several financial transactions with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari. Sanjay Bhandari and CC Thampi are also inextricably linked to Robert Vadra through the benami properties bought for Vadra by Thampi and Bhandari acting as the conduit.
OpIndia.com had released 3 property documents that linked Rahul Gandhi, Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to HL Pahwa. Now, we have two more property papers that link the Vadra-Gandhi family to HL Pahwa who is inextricably linked to CC Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari. Earlier, the property deal, the papers of which we had released, was of land in Hassanpur.
Now, we have acquired the property papers of another land transaction between Robert Vadra and HL Pahwa. This land deal pertains to land in Amipur. Interestingly, this transaction is also from HL Pahwa to Robert Vadra.
Another interesting aspect of the deal is that the same Mahesh Nagar who signed on behalf of Robert Vadra and Rahul Gandhi in the previous papers we had put out, has also signed on behalf of Vadra for this land deal.
HL Pahwa seems to be in the middle of the deals between Robert Vadra, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi.
In fact, we accessed another paper of a different land deal where Robert Vadra had sold land to HL Pahwa as well.
With the nexus between HL Pahwa, CC Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari coming to the fore, there are certain questions that Rahul Gandhi cannot escape.
1. Rahul Gandhi bought land from HL Pahwa who is linked to Sanjay Bhandari and CC Thampi. Did he know of this unholy nexus when he purchased the land?
2. HL Pahwa has sold land to Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and then purchased the land back at inflated prices when he did not have the cash reserves to do so. In the process, he took money from CC Thampi to make good on these payments. Did Rahul Gandhi know of the unholy land deals of his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and brother-in-law, Robert Vadra?
3. What role does HL Pahwa play in his family transactions and why is he the only conduit through which such land deals are conducted? Why Did HL Pahwa take money from CC Thampi and why did he buy the land back at inflated prices when he did not have cash reserves?
4. The links lead directly to arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari who wanted to be an offset partner for Dassault during the Congress regime’s negotiations on Rafale deal. Most of the land purchase and sale happened during the Congress regime while the Rafale negotiations were on. Did Rahul Gandhi know of Sanjay Bhandari’s involvement in the Congress regime Rafale deal?
5. News reports have confirmed that several MMRCA files went missing from defence ministry during the MMRCA deal negotiations. These files were photocopied by Sanjay Bhandari, the arms dealer. While Rahul Gandhi and his family were dealing with HL Pahwa, who is linked to CC Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari, was he aware of what Sanjay Bhandari was up to?
6. Sanjay Bhandari was also a middleman for Airbus. Airbus is a part of the consortium that manufactures Eurofighter, which was in direct competition with Rafale during MMRCA deal. With his and his family’s deals with HL Pahwa linking to Sanjay Bhandari through Sanjay Thampi, was Rahul Gandhi aware that Sanjay Bhandari is also the middleman for Airbus?
7. Did Rahul Gandhi rake up the Rafale issue because Sanjay Bhandari could not get his hand in the cookie jar with the Rafale MMRCA deal and now, Eurofighter might seem more ‘lucrative’?
8. It was reported by an ABP journalist that Rahul Gandhi met Eurofighter representatives in Germany. Did that play a role in his slandering the current Rafale deal? Was Sanjay Bhandari involved in these alleged meetings?
9. Are the ‘Chowkidaar chor hai’ slogans a front so that his own nexus with an arms dealer is not revealed?
10. The current Rafale deal got a clean chit from the Supreme Court. Is Rahul Gandhi going after the deal continuously, with tenuous arguments, because if the Rafale deal is not sabotaged, Eurofighter cannot be back into consideration?
While Rahul Gandhi has gone hammer and tongs against the Rafale deal, it is evident that cogs in nexus were out undermining national security. It is crucial that Rahul Gandhi comes out an explains himself as just agreeing to purchase the land but not explaining his links to HL Pahwa, CC Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari only makes the cloud of questions thicker.
