ED questions Ahmed Patel at his residence

NEW DELHI: A team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials today quizzed senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel at his residence in connection with its ongoing money laundering probe against Gujarat based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech.
Earlier this month, ED had summoned Patel to join the investigation. But citing COVID-19 guidelines and his old age, Patel had refused to visit the ED office for questioning.

The agency has already questioned Patel's son and son-in-law in connection with its bank fraud and money laundering investigation .

As per agency sources, a witness in the case had revealed about the alleged proximity between Chetan Sandesara, Ahmed Patel, his son Faisal Patel and son-in-law Irfan Siddiqui.

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.

The witness in his statement further said that Irfan Siddiqui and Faisal Patel were given code names by Chetan Sandesara. “Chetan and Gagan referred to Irfan as Irfan Bhai. Irfan’s code name was i2 and Faisal Patel was given code name i1, the witness named Sunil Yadav said in his statement.

Last June 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.

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.