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New Delhi:
Facing 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 mentioned 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.
“Thank you, officials of ED for coming to my house thrice,” he mentioned.
“I answered each of their 128 questions but they failed to answer my one fundamental question – Who in the Gujarat state government was responsible for bestowing multiple benefits, 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 assist and alleged that sending the ED to harass the senior celebration chief in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic exhibits the “perversion” of this authorities’s priorities.
“Thousands are dying, our health workers are desperate for supportive measures, the economy is facing an unprecedented crisis, the Chinese are entering our territory, our soldiers are being killed, and this is what the Government is busy spending time on,” she alleged in a tweet.
“They say crisis unveils the true nature of people, it appears the saying applies to governments as well,” 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.
“This is political vendetta and harassment against me and my family and I do not know under whose pressure 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 house 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.
Officials mentioned Ahmed Patel’s assertion is being recorded underneath the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He is 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 Income Tax division for his or her alleged nexus with some high-profile politicians and fees of corruption and tax evasion respectively.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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