ED questions Ahmed Patel for 7 hours

July 09, 2020 22:33

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday questioned senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel for about seven hours during the fourth round of grilling at his official residence in connection with the Sandesara brothers-promoted Sterling Biotech company bank fraud and money laundering case, officials said.

A three-member team of the federal probe agency reached the Rajya Sabha MP's 23, Mother Teresa Crescent residence in the Lutyens' zone of central Delhi around 11 am and left at about 7 pm.

Patel later told reporters that the investigators asked him 24 questions, and this totals to 152 questions asked to him during four sittings.

"My request to ED friends is that they should also question people from the ruling party and their relatives apart from the Congress party so that it is felt that they are doing their job in an unbiased manner," he told reporters.

Patel (70) is currently the treasurer of the Congress party and has earlier been the political secretary to United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

He is considered one of the most powerful persons in the grand old party.

Patel, an MP from Gujarat, was last questioned on July 2 for about 10 hours.

He had then told reporters that the ED investigators had posed 128 questions to him in three sessions.

"This is political vendetta and harassment against me and my family and I do not know under whose pressure they (investigators) are working," Patel had told reporters.

With the latest session ending on Thursday, he has faced ED questioning for about 34 hours till now, including on June 27, June 30 and July 2.

Patel was allowed to be quizzed at home after he refused to visit the Enforcement Directorate office, citing the prevailing COVID-19 guidelines that discourage senior citizens from going out.

Officials said the Congress leader's statement has been recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act like in the past.

It is understood that he is being questioned about his purported links with the Sandesara brothers, the promoters of the Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech pharmaceutical company, and alleged dealings of his family members with them. -- PTI

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