In what might signal trouble for senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, he and his close family members have come under Enforcement Directorate (ED) scanner, in connection with a money laundering case. Apart from Patel, his son Faisal Patel and son-in-law Irfan Siddiqui, have been flagged by the ED.

This scrutiny comes in connection with a money laundering case which involves the Sandesara Group of companies. This Sandesara group is alleged to have been involved in high value suspicious transactions which amount to as much as Rs 5,383 crore.

We had recently reported that the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in connection with this case, raided the houses and premises of Sanjay Mahajan, who is believed to be a close aid of senior Congress leader and Sonia Gandhi’s close aide: Ahmed Patel.

Now it turns out that Sunil Yadav, an employee with the Sandesara Group, has alleged that huge sums of money were handed over to Ahmed Patel’s son-in-law by Chetan Sandesara, the owner of the Sandesara group and his associate Gagan Dhavan.

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It has been alleged that Sandesara and Dhavan used to hand over huge sums of cash ranging from Rs 15 to Rs 25 lakh to Ahmed’s son-in-law, and Yadav claimed that he himself accompanied Sandesara 4-5 times while the latter went to visit Siddiqui’s residence.

Yadav has also alleged that cash was handed over to the chauffeur of Ahmed Patel’s son. This cash was supposed to eventually make way to Faisal (Ahmed Patel’s son), on behalf of Chetan Sandesara. As per Yadav, he was called by Sandesara to deliver Rs 5 lakh for Faisal Patel, he as a result allegedly contacted and delivered the cash to Faisal’s chauffeur.

Yadav has also gone on to allege that Sandesara used to regularly frequent Ahmed Patel’s residence in New Delhi, and used to code word it as “Headquarter 23”. Apart from that, Irfan Siddiqui and Faisal Patel used to be refereed to as J2 and J1 respectively.

This written statement by Yadav has been made under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, as a result of which it is admissible as evidence in a court of law.

The Congress has tried to defend Patel by alleging that Yadav’s statement was recorded under coercion, and that the whole affair was a witch hunt to malign the Patel family.

Such news about a senior Congress leader in scrutiny comes after it was reported that, the ED arrested two people in connection with the Bikaner land scam case, involving Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra. These arrests were made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.