By Divyesh Singh: The Enforcement Directorate, during its searches at IAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal’s residence in a money laundering case related to Covid field hospital contracts, found that he and his wife own 24 properties worth Rs 34 crore and also hold Rs 15 crore in fixed deposits. The probe agency has found a suspicious FD worth Rs 5 crore made by IAS Sanjeev Jaiswal’s family members in 2020 during the Covid 19 period.

Sanjeev Jaiswal on Friday appeared before the ED on Friday for questioning. He was seen entering the ED office at Ballard Estate in South Mumbai around 11.30 am and was questioned for over eight hours.

According to the ED, Sanjeev Jaiswal said properties worth Rs 34 crore were gifted to him and his wife by his father-in-law, also a retired senior bureaucrat. Jaiswal also claimed that the said FDs were also gifted by his father-in-law to his wife.

On June 21, the probe agency raided 15 places linked to some people, including the IAS officer. Jaiswal had served as an additional commissioner in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The ED recovered jewellery worth nearly Rs 2.4 crore, Rs 68 lakh cash and property-related documents during those raids. During the search, ED officials found documents of various properties in the names of Jaiswal’s family members.

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To be precise, around 24 such property documents were found and these properties are mostly located in Mumbai and other important cities and districts of Maharashtra.

Apart from FDs and properties, there are some suspicious transactions that took place from the account of Lifeline Hospital Management Services(LFMS) run by Sujit Patkar and others which are also being verified, ED said.

Patkar’s firm LFMS had received contracts from BMC to run Covid centers at Worli and Dahisar for which the firm was paid around Rs 30 crore. Out of this, Rs 22 crores was transferred to some entities and accounts by Patkar and his associates.

The ED raids of last week were conducted in Mumbai in connection with a money laundering case against businessman Sujit Patkar, who is believed to be a close associate of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, PTI reported. Patkar and his three partners have been accused of bagging BMC contracts fraudulently for managing Covid-19 field hospitals during the pandemic.

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