Salman Khurshid slams centre after ED questioned Ahmed Patel for the third time

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Friday slammed the Centre and Enforcement Directorate for questioning Ahmed Patel's for the third time in less than a week in connection with Sandesara fraud case.

A team of the ED had quizzed Patel for over eight hours on Thursday in connection with a money-laundering probe against a Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech.

Speaking to , Salman Khurshid said, "If individual cases are considered and what is generally happening in the country, it becomes difficult to find words to respond to what this government has been doing."

"I am sad that people who are respectable and are the prominent faces of the opposition are being virtually harassed in order to give an impression to them and to the rest of the world that anybody who stands up and resists anything wrong is going to be treated in that manner," Khurshid said. "Ahmed Patel has been a part of the governance in this country for decades. Today, to find some excuse to trouble him is to find some difficult dimensions of the financial realm of our country. It shows how hollow this government is," he said.

Khurshid added, "This government and its policies are somehow about pushing everybody to the wall. Thankfully, we have colleagues who would not surrender, that is a very clear message to the government."

"We stand with leaders like Ahmed Patel. We will show that our solidarity, integrity, determination and honesty will prevail in this country, " he further added.

Patel's name surfaced during the investigation against Sandesara Group of Compes in the alleged bank loan fraud case.

ED's investigation reveals that Sterling Biotech Ltd (SBL) Sandesara Group and its main promoters namely Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara, and Deepti Sandesara have allegedly cheated more than Rs 14,500 crore.

Not only Ahmed Patel, his son, Faisal Patel, and his son-in-law, Irfan Siddiqui, have been named by a corporate executive and are being questioned by the ED in connection with the money laundering case.

( With inputs from ANI )