ED questions Ahmed Patel's son-in-law in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday questioned Irfan Siddiqui, son-in-law of senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel in relation with the bank fraud and money laundering investigation against Gujarat based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech.

As per available information, Siddiqui was grilled for several hours and is likely to be questioned on Wednesday. It is alleged that Siddiqui was close to Chetan Sandesara, Director of the Sandesara group and often used to visit him. According to a witness whose statement has been recorded by ED, Chetan and co-accused Gagan Dhawan used to carry huge amounts of cash in bags to Siddiqui’s house in Vasant Vihar.

It is further alleged that Chetan used to refer to Ahmed Patel’s residence as headquarters.

Last month, ED had attached properties worth Rs 9,778 crore of Sterling Biotech in its investigation into a money laundering case against the pharmaceutical company and others involving domestic and offshore branches of Indian banks in 2004-12.

The attached properties include four oil rigs and an oil field in Nigeria, an aeroplane, a bungalow in London.

This attachment is in addition to the attachment of assets worth Rs. 4730 Cr made by the ED in 2018 which stands confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority under PMLA, ED said on Wednesday.

The agency registered a money laundering case against the SBL group, Sandesara brothers (Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara and Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara) and others in August 2017, days after a case of alleged bank fraud of Rs 5,700 crore was filed against them by CBI.

It is alleged that the Sandesara brothers and others hatched a criminal conspiracy to cheat banks by manipulating figures in the balance sheets of their flagship companies to induce banks to sanction higher loans.