The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) probe on money trail involving the Rs.5000 crore ($730 million) banking scam involving the controversial Sterling Biotech & Sandesara Group firm reaches Congress leader Ahmed Patel. As per the confession of the accused Ranjit Malik alias Johny, who is now remanded by the trial court to ED custody, he had delivered Rs.25 lakhs ($36,000) to Ahmed Patel. The money was delivered to Ahmed Patel’s residence – 23, Mother Teresa Crescent – in Delhi through a courier Rakesh Chandra.

Ahmed Patel’s son-in-law Irfan’s role is also detailed in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) First Information Report (FIR) for bribing senior Income Tax officers. The CBI FIR details were already reported by PGurus[1]. “Information further revealed that the said Diary contained an entry for cash deposit of Rs.75,00,000 ($118,000) in the name of Dr. Subhash Chandra IT on 25.02.2011 is found duly incorporated in the daily consolidated summary, seized from Vadodara by search Party No: 17. The receipt of Rs.75,00,000/- from Dr. Subhash Chandra IT and a further sum of Rs.1,00,00,000 from another person Mr. Irfan Bhai in cash which is also mentioned and added to total receipts,” said the Page 11 of the CBI FIR.

“Further, payment of Rs.1,75,00,000 is also shown in the entries under “Vadodara” as “SHOKEEN PROP” (Delhi Farm House). Similar entries are mentioned in Dairy 2011. A sum of Rs.30,00,000 is shown as cash received on 02.04.2011 from Dr. Subhash Chandra IT by Mr. Gagan Dhawan and the same is given to Mr. Shokeen (Shokeen Properties P Ltd) by Mr. Gagan Dhawan,” said the FIR, saying further investigations are going on in this regard.

Irfan Siddiqui, known as Irfan Bhai is married to Mumtaz Patel, daughter of Ahmed Patel. Gagan Dhawan, who is a close aide of Ahmed Patel is already arrested by the agencies[2].

Earlier too, Sunil Yadav, employed by the Sandesara group, which is being investigated by the ED for money laundering, had exposed the involvement of Congress leader Ahmed Patel, his son, Faisal Patel, and his son-in-law, Irfan Siddiqui in the same, through his written statement to the directorate.

Yadav in his written statement to the ED confessed that he had handed over cash to Faisal Patel’s chauffeur and that the cash was to be delivered to Ahmed Patel’s son on behalf of Chetan Sandesara, one of the promoters of Sandesara Group. Yadav’s written statement also mentions Chetan Sandesara, one of the owners of Sterling group, involved in the money laundering, would frequently visit Ahmed Patel’s residence (23 Mother Crescent, New Delhi) and that Patel’s residence would be described as ‘Headquarters 23’ by Sandesara. Siddiqui, Yadav said, would be referred as J2 and Faisal Patel as J1 by Sandesara.

At present the controversial business group is facing two CBI probes. One is for bribing Income Tax officers and other is Rs.5000 crore bank frauds. The ED has already attached Rs.4700 crore worth assets of the Gujarat based Sterling Biotech and Sandesara Group[3].

Sandesara – Sterling Biotech is caught in the controversy of bribing many Gujarat based IAS and IPS officers also. The Sterling Diary entries show that many top officials were in the payroll of this tainted fir. CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana was also caught for accepting Rs.3.8 crores from this firm in 2011 alone, when he was the Commissioner of Police in Surat. His son Ankush Asthana was also a senior staffer of Sterling – Sandesara Group and his daughter’s lavish marriage party was conducted at the company’s farmhouse[4].

Note:

1. The conversion rate used in this article is 1 USD = 68.54 Rupees.

References:

[1] CBI FIR names son-in-law of Ahmed Patel (Irfan) of bribing Income Tax officials – Sep 25, 2017, PGurus.com

[2] Midnight meetings and bags of cash! How Ahmed Patel’s son, son-in-law are in dock in Rs.5000 cr UPA loan scam – Dec 28, 2017, TimesNowNews.com

[3] Ahmed Patel in the spotlight after ED’s attachment of Rs.4700 crore assets of his friendly Sterling Biotech & Sandesara Group of companies – Jun 4, 2018, PGurus.com

[4] Son of Asthana worked at Sterling Biotech, daughter’s marriage party at Sterling farmhouse, accuses Prashant Bhushan – Nov 22, 2017, PGurus.com