New Delhi:
Dealing with a probe by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case, senior Congress chief Ahmed Patel has claimed that the investigation company has did not reply his query on who within the Gujarat authorities had bestowed advantages, privileges and honours to the Sandesara group, for which he’s being quizzed.
Mr Patel stated he has answered 128 questions posed to him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and thanked the company for visiting him thrice in reference to the Sandesara money-laundering case.
“Thanks, officers of ED for coming to my home thrice,” he stated.
“I answered every of their 128 questions however they did not reply my one elementary query – Who within the Gujarat state authorities was accountable for bestowing a number of advantages, privileges and honours on the Sandesara group,” Ahmed Patel wrote on Twitter.
Congress normal secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra got here out in Ahmed Patel’s help and alleged that sending the ED to harass the senior celebration chief in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the “perversion” of this authorities’s priorities.
“Hundreds are dying, our well being employees are determined for supportive measures, the financial system is dealing with an unprecedented disaster, the Chinese language are getting into our territory, our troopers are being killed, and that is what the Authorities is busy spending time on,” she alleged in a tweet.
“They are saying disaster unveils the true nature of individuals, it seems the saying applies to governments as properly,” Priyanka Gandhi wrote.
The ED investigators questioned Ahmed Patel at his residence for about 10 hours on Thursday in the course of the third spherical of his grilling in reference to the probe into the Sandesara brothers’ financial institution fraud and money-laundering case.
“That is political vendetta and harassment in opposition to me and my household and I have no idea below whose strain they (investigators) are working,” Ahmed Patel had claimed after his questioning.
The probe company had earlier questioned the 70-year-old senior Congress chief in two separate periods, clocking about 17 hours in whole, on June 27 and 30.
He was allowed to be quizzed at residence by the company after the Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat refused to go to the ED workplace, citing the prevailing COVID-19 pointers that discourage senior residents from going out.
Officers stated Ahmed Patel’s assertion is being recorded below the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA).
He’s being questioned on his alleged hyperlinks with the Sandesara brothers, the promoters of the Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech pharmaceutical firm, and dealings of his relations with them.
The company, final 12 months, had questioned Ahmed Patel’s son Faisal and son-in-law Irfan Ahmed Siddiqui in reference to the case and recorded their statements.
The Sandesaras are additionally dealing with separate probes by the CBI and the Revenue Tax division for his or her alleged nexus with some high-profile politicians and costs of corruption and tax evasion respectively.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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