Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday questioned Unmesh Joshi — son of former Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi — and builder Rajan Shirodkar in connection with the Infrastructure Leasing and & Financial Services (IL&FS) scam. The questioning went on for nearly 8 hours, for both Joshi and Shirodkar, who were also questioned on Monday and August 16 respectively.
The ED started interrogating Joshi, for the second consecutive day, around 11 am and an hour later, Shirodkar joined in. The ED officials were, however, tight-lipped on what unfolded during the questioning, which concluded at around 8 pm.
After leaving from the ED office, Joshi said, “I cannot share the details of interrogation. I have been called tomorrow again.”
Another person, supposedly a chartered accountant with Kohinoor CTNL Infrastructure Company Private Limited, also reached the ED office with a stash of documents, which were supposedly used during the questioning of the duo on Tuesday.
“The questioning will continue on Wednesday and beyond if need be. The details of each step taken by the entity in past years leading to heavy losses to IL&FS is being probed,” said an ED officer.
The joint questioning was allegedly to plug ambiguity and to corroborate the facts, which they revealed individually. The ED is also firming itself ahead of the questioning of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray later this week.
Meanwhile, when media persons approached Shirodkar, he said, “I had come to submit some documents, which the agency had asked for”. He further added, “We were not questioned together.”
The investigators also have not ruled out a joint questioning of Joshi, Shirodkar, Thackeray and IL&FS officials.
With the help of a detailed questionnaire, ED officials have sought details on Kohinoor CTNL Infrastructure Ltd’s partners, clients, their business model as well as details of their lenders.
PMLA court denies bail to two former officials
A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Tues-day rejected the bail ple-as filed by Arun Kumar Saha and Karunakumar Ramchand in the Infrast-ructure Leasing & Finan-cial Services (IL&FS) alleged payment default case.
Former joint managing director of the company, Saha and MD of transportation network, Ramchand had filed bail applications on the ground that the probe agency has not filed the chargesheet against them within stipulated time period of sixty days and hence they are entitled for the bail by default. The ED had arrested both of them in the month of June.
While opposing their bail pleas, advocate Sunil Gonsalves on behalf of ED had contended that the agency has already submitted prosecution complaint (chargesheet) against the accused with the concerned department of the court on Friday, which is within the stipulated time. However, the chargesheet is stuck in administration. He had argued that in this circumstance the accused are not entitled for bail on the ground of non-filing of chargesheet on time.
Accepting contentions of ED special judge Prashant Rajvaidya rejected the bail applications of the duo.
The central agency had filed a money laundering case in February this year and had twice raided a number of former executives in order to obtain additional evidence. The debt crisis at the infrastructure lender came to light following a series of defaults by its group companies beginning September 2018.
