The Sterling Biotech LTD (SBL) / Sandesara Group money laundering case involved graft charges to the tune of around Rs 15,000 crores.
The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrived at the residence of Congress treasurer and Sonia Gandhi’s close confidante Ahmed Patel to conduct question him on the Sterling Biotech Ltd (SBL) / Sandesara Group money laundering case that invloves graft charges to the tune of Rs 15,000 crores.
Patel had earlier evaded the investigation citing health reasons and saying that since he is over 60 years of age, he is at risk of contracting coronavirus.
Earlier, Patel’s son Faisal and son-in-law (advocate) Irfan Siddiqui were questioned in connection with the case, and during the probe they had admitted to knowing Nitin Sandesara.
The ED last year claimed that the Sandesara scam was much bigger than the PNB scam committed by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
As per sources in the ED, probe into SBL or the Sandesara Group, and its promoters Nitin Sandesara , Chetan Sandesara and Deepti Sandesara revealed that they had duped Indian banks of over Rs 14,500 crores, much higher compared to what diamantaire Modi did, of around rs 11,400 crore.
Back in 2017, one of the employees of Sandesara Group was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate and his statement was recorded under PMLA.
He had claimed that he had gone to the residence of Ahmed Patel’s son and son-in-law with huge amounts of cash, and it was also found that kickbacks was paid to a lot of senior Congress leaders through these two.
Patel has continued to deny these charges and maintains that he is being subjected to a political witch-hunt and vendetta.
ED officials had earlier revealed that Sunil Yadav, an employee with the Sandesara Group, alleged Siddiqui and Faisal Patel were given code names by Chetan Sandesara.
“Chetan and Gagan referred to Siddiqui as Irfan Bhai. Irfan’s code name was ‘i2’ and Faisal was given code name ‘i1’ “, Yadav had said in his statement to the probe agency.
He had added that Faisal used to take his friends to the posh Pushpanjali Farms in New Delhi to party and all expenses were borne by Chetan Sandesara, news agency IANS reported.