ED quizzes Patel in PMLA case; Congress slams govt
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday questioned senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel for his purported links with the Sandesara brothers of the Sterling Biotech group, who fled the country in 2017 after defrauding several banks of several thousand crore rupees, officials said.
The officials, who requested anonymity, said Patel, 70, who was political secretary to Sonia Gandhi when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power between 2004 and 2014, was questioned at his residence— 23, Mother Teresa Crescent — in Delhi by a three-member ED team.
He was earlier summoned for questioning, but cited Covid-19 guidelines and expressed his inability to visit the agency.
The health ministry had issued an advisory for citizens above 65 years to stay at home to protect themselves against the coronavirus pandemic.
Patel, who was supposed to appear at the ED office on June 8, had also pointed out that cases of the disease had surfaced in the agency, which told him that its officers were willing to visit his home because taking the probe forward in the case was important.
The Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament from Gujarat, officials said, was asked questions about his links with Nitin and Chetan Sandesara and claims made by certain witnesses.
An employee of the Sandesara Group – Sunil Yadav – had claimed before the ED he ran up expenses of ~10 lakh for a party which was attended by Faisal Patel, son of Ahmed Patel, arranged entry in a night club for him (Faisal Patel) and once delivered ~5 lakh to his (Faisal Patel’s) driver in Khan Market on the instructions of Chetan Sandesara, officials said. Yadav told the ED investigation team that the money was meant for Faisal Patel, officials added.
Yadav had also claimed before the ED that Ahmed Patel’s son Faisal and son-in-law Irfan Siddiqui were even given code names by Chetan Sandesara.
Faisal and Irfan were questioned by ED in August and July 2019 respectively. The agency is investigating fraud worth over ~14,500 crore by Sterling Biotech and its promoters - Nitin, Chetan and Deepti Sandesara.
They have been absconding since 2017 and said to be hiding in Nigeria and efforts are being made to extradite them. An Interpol red corner notice request is also pending against them.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said: “If you need to probe something, then why don’t you probe the names that appeared in the Sahara diary? There are some important people who are now power, why can’t CBI launch a probe against them? The (ED raid) is a motivated move that is aimed to divert attention from the bigger issues that have come up before the country.”
Addressing mediapersons outside his residence on Saturday evening, Ahmed Patel said, “At a time when we have such a tense situation on Indo-china border, China has grabbed our land and people are suffering due to mismanagement of Covid-19 crisis by this government, it is trying to divert the attention by targeting the opposition leaders. I feel sorry for these (ED) officials who are being used by this government. I believe in Constitution and have answered whatever they wanted to know.”