ED summons Maharashtra ex-minister Jayant Patil in IL&FS money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra minister Jayant Patil in connection with the IL&FS money laundering case, an official said on Thursday.

Patil, who is the Maharashtra NCP chief, has been asked to appear before the agency on Friday, the official said.

Patil's statement may be recorded in connection with the case at the ED's office located at Ballard Estate in South Mumbai.

Reacting to the ED notice, the NCP leader said he has written to the anti-money laundering agency seeking more time to appear before it as he has to attend some marriages in the family.

The former state finance minister said he never had any association or financial dealing with IL&FS.

Patil said he only knows the case in which he has been summoned related to Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS).

"I have had no connection with it and I never obtained a loan from them, but since a notice has been received, I will face the inquiry. Today, a constable handed me the notice," said Patil while talking to reporters in Sangli in western Maharashtra.

The ED on Wednesday carried out searches against two former auditor firms of IL&FS -- BSR and Associates and Deloitte Haskins and Sells -- in connection with its money laundering probe into alleged financial irregularities at the infrastructure development and finance company, official sources said.

The premises linked to the two auditors in Mumbai were searched under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they added.

Some employees of the two companies -- Deloitte Haskins and Sells and BSR and Associates, an Indian affiliate of global auditing firm KPMG -- were also questioned by the officials during the searches even as documents were seized.

"This routine inquiry is in respect to an ongoing matter regarding a former client and we continue to extend our full cooperation to the authorities," a spokesperson for Deloitte said.

The action came a week after the Supreme Court set aside a Bombay High Court verdict that quashed an SFIO probe against the two companies, both former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services, paving the way for action against them under the Companies Act and allowing the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to take forward its enquiry against them.

The IL&FS filed for bankruptcy in 2018.

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) is an agency under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs that investigates and prosecutes white collar crimes and frauds.

The money laundering probe into the alleged financial irregularities at IL&FS was launched by the ED in 2019 after the central 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 also took cognisance of a complaint filed by the SFIO against IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) and its officials.

The agency had attached assets of various entities in this case in the past.