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Enforcement Directorate questions Sonia Gandhi’s close aide Ahmed Patel over money laundering case

Giving a shock to the Congress party, the Enforcement Directorate has questioned senior Congress leader, former MP and Sonia Gandhi’s close aide Ahmed Patel over a money laundering case. A three-member team of the agency visited Patel at his residence in central Delhi to record his statement under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act).

The ED has questioned the Congress leader in connection with a multi-crore money laundering case involving Gujarat-based firm Sterling Biotech and the main promoters of the Sterling Group – the Sandesara brothers.

The Congress leader was accused of allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 25 lakh in cash from Ranjit Malik, a middleman for Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in November 2017 in connection with the Sterling Biotech case. Patel had described the allegations as “baseless”.

Patel, a Rajya Sabha MP from the state, was also summoned by the Income Tax Department in March in connection with a tax evasion probe linked to monetary transactions of his party.

The case pertains to a probe against Chetan and Nitin Sandesara, and a few others, over alleged multi-crore bank fraud by Sterling Biotech. The original charge-sheet, filed after a complaint made by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and under the various provisions of PMLA, accused the company of taking loans from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which had turned into non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans.

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