NCP leader Jayant Patil seeks 10 days time to appear before ED

NCP leader Jayant Patil sought 10 days time from ED to appear before the agency in the IK&FS scam which once threatened to collapse the Indian money market.

Mumbai (Maharashtra):After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sent a summon to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jayant Patil in connection with the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) scam, the NCP leader has now sought 10 days time to appear before the agency.

The Islampur MLA was summoned by the ED and was asked to appear for questioning on Friday in the money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the now bankrupt financial services firm IL&FS. According to official sources, the ED has recently initiated fresh action in this 2019 case after conducting searches the Mumbai offices of Deloitte Haskins and Sells and BSR and Associates, an Indian affiliate of global accounting firm KPMG, the two former auditors of IL&FS.

The money laundering probe into the alleged financial irregularities at IL&FS was launched by the ED in 2019 after the federal agency took cognisance of a Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) FIR filed against IRL, ITNL (group companies of IL&FS), its officials and others.

The ED had taken cognisance of a complaint filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) against IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) and its officials. The central agency had also attached assets of various entities in this case in the past and arrested Arun Kumar Saha one of the former members of the committee of directors of IFIN and Karunakaran Ramchand, former managing director of ITNL.

The probe agency filed a charge sheet before a special PMLA court in Mumbai. The agency alleged that the senior management of IL&FS indulged in acts of commissions and omissions, leading to illegal personal gains to them at the expense of the company. The agency said the IL&FS group companies had an aggregate debt burden of more than Rs 91,000 crore and a series of defaults had taken place between June and September in 2018. The magnitude of defaults were as such it threatened the money markets of India.