Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s aide Alankar Sawai questioned by ED

The Enforcement Director questioned and recorded the statement of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s close aide Alankar Sawai in a money laundering case in which the spokesperson of Trinamool Congress, Saket Gokhale was recently arrested by the agency. According to officials, Sawai was questioned and confronted with Gokhale in Ahmedabad over three days earlier this week.

Mr Sawai, a former banker, is said to be a close associate of Rahul Gandhi, the former Congress president, and to be in charge of his research team.

Mr Sawai was summoned by the federal investigation agency after it detained 35-year-old Saket Gokhale on January 25 while he was in the custody of the Gujarat Police in connection with alleged financial irregularities in gathering cash through a crowdfunding platform.

When asked about the 23.54 lakh deposited in his bank account in cash over a year, Mr Gokhale told the agency that “this amount was given in cash by Alankar Sawai of the India National Congress for social media work and other consultancy” the Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed an Ahmedabad court on that day.

When questioned why Mr Sawai had paid him in cash, Mr Gokhale responded that only Mr Sawai could answer this question, according to the ED’s remand paper.

“Further, on being asked regarding any written agreement with Alankar Sawai in respect of social media work he stated that it was only verbal agreement with Alankar Sawai,” the agency said.