Former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who has been facing a lot of heat after his alleged business dealings with Dawood Ibrahim’s associate surfaced, has now been accused of having links with HDIL promoters Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan, who are currently embroiled in the PMC Bank scam.

#Exclusive #Breaking | TIMES NOW Newsbreak gets bigger. @Praful_patel’s link to the PMC Bank scam accused revealed. Managing Editor Navika Kumar with exclusive inputs. | #PrafulPMCAccusedLink pic.twitter.com/rpi5LFTHis — TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) October 15, 2019

According to the reports, new documents have surfaced which shows NCP leader and former UPA era minister Praful Patel’s name in numerous passenger manifests of an airline owned by the Wadhawans. The PMC scam accused Wadhawans had owned the private airliner Privilege Airways which was operating charter planes. It is currently attached by the ED for investigation. The Wadhawans are currently in judicial custody for the PMC Bank scam.

Recently, the Mumbai International Airport Limited had issued a notice cautioning potential buyers of Privilege Airways of dues owed by the airline to the airport.

Read: New documents with signatures of Praful Patel establish his undeniable links with Dawood Ibrahim

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A series of documents reveals that the shareholding details of Wadhawans in a company named Privilege Airways.

The second document dated 10th March 2012, shows Praful Patel who was the then Civil Aviation Minister as a passenger in the same airline. Another document dated 31st March 2012, shows Praful Patel’s name again in the passenger manifest along with Rakesh Wadhawan among others. Several other documents show that Praful Patel has used the Wadhawans’ private jet a total number of 8 times during the time period of February 2012 to May 2012.

According to the reports, the documents reveal that former UPA minister Praful Patel had used private jets connected to PMC scam accused to travel to various destinations from Mumbai. On some trips, it is seen that Praful Patel has also traveled with the Wadhawans themselves.

It is notable here that Praful Patel is already under investigation for his alleged involvement in the illegal aviation deals case. The allegations had surfaced after the ED had grilled lobbyist Deepak Talwar in the aviation scam case for allegedly bribing politicians and senior officials in the UPA era to tweak the rules to benefit certain foreign aircraft manufacturers and airlines.

Read: ED summons Congress era Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel in connection with Deepak Talwar illegal aviation deals case

What is PMC crisis?

The Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank is one of the largest cooperative banks, which was put under scrutiny by the Reserve Bank for fraud and misreporting of bad loans. Later, the bank had admitted that one large account, HDIL was the main reason for the current crisis.

Following this, the Mumbai Police’s EOW had arrested HDIL directors Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan in connection with a fraud of over Rs 4,355 crores. According to the reports, PMC Bank officials gave loans to HDIL between the year 2008 and August 2019 despite the Wadhwans defaulting on previous loans. The Wadhawans along with other promoters including Waryam Singh have been sent to judicial custody till October 16.

Former MD of PMC bank, Joy Thomas aka Junaid Khan was also arrested by a special investigation team (SIT) of the EOW of Mumbai Police on the 4th of October. He had been absconding until then. The EOW had filed an FIR on September 30 (Monday) against HDIL and PMC Bank officials in the PMC bank fraud case

Later, it was revealed that Joy Thomas, former MD of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank had converted to Islam, married his assistant at the bank as per Islamic rituals in 2012, changed his name to Junaid Khan and owned 10 properties in Pune with his second wife allegedly as part of the Rs 4,355 crore scam.

Praful Patel’s Dawood Ibrahim link:

Earlier yesterday, we had published a series of documents that had shown Praful Patel’s financial dealings with Dawood Ibrahim and his associates. The new documents accessed by us had revealed signatures of Praful Patel on documents that linked him to Iqbal Memon alias ‘Mirchi’, a key aide of Dawood Ibrahim.

The documents clearly showed the business links between Praful Patel and Asif Iqbal Memon, Hajra Iqbal Memon and Junaid Iqbal Memon, all linked to Iqbal Mirchi, who is a key aide of Dawood Ibrahim.

Read exclusive details: ED crackdown on Dawood’s India network, Praful Patel’s firm revealed to have links

Reportedly, a 15-story building in Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli, named ‘Ceejay House’ was constructed as a JV between Mirchi and M/S Millenium Developers Pvt Ltd in 2006-07. In 2007, the third and fourth floors of the building were given to Mirchi’s family by Millenium Developers. Former Union Minister Praful Patel and his wife Varsha Patel own a significant number of shares in Millenium Developers Pvt Ltd.

The 12th floor of the same building has been listed as the address of Praful and Varsha Patel. The Patel family owns the Ceejay Group, a tobacco conglomerate.