ED Says Congress Leader Salman Khurshid's Wife Louise, Two Others Laundered Govt Funds

The federal agency, in a statement, also said that it has provisionally attached 15 agricultural plots located in the Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh and bank deposits, worth a combined Rs 45.92 lakh, of the Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust, under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The plots are valued at Rs 29.51 lakh and the amount kept in four bank accounts of the trust is Rs 16.41 lakh, it said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) last month registered the statement of Louise Khurshid at its zonal office in Lucknow.

A probe found that "grant-in-aid of Rs 71.50 lakh received by the trust was not utilised for holding camps sanctioned by the Government of India but was laundered by the late Pratyush Shukla, a representative of the trust, Mohammad Athar alias Athar Farooqui, secretary to the trust, and Louise Khurshid, project director of the trust, for the interest of the trust and their personal gain", the agency claimed.

In this way, the fund received as grant-in-aid was laundered for their personal gain, leading to generation of proceeds of crime, it said.

The money-laundering case stems from 17 FIRs of the Economic Offences Wing of the Uttar Pradesh Police.

The police have charge-sheeted Athar and Louise Khurshid. Last month, an MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district issued an arrest warrant against the two.

The special public prosecutor had told the court that during 2009-10, a programme for distribution of artificial limbs and equipment was organised by Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust for disabled persons in the Bhojipura area of Bareilly district.

After some allegations of discrepancies in the utilisation of funds were made, the state government got the matter investigated.

It was found that government funds were misused by using fake seals and signatures in the programme, the prosecutor had told the court.

Shukla died a few years ago and ED sources had said it recorded the statement of Shukla's wife and some others. Legal proceedings against Shukla were abated.