Ambulance scam: Cong leaders, kin under ED lens

There is more trouble for senior Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot and sons of two former Union ministers P Chidambaram and Vayalar Ravi with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registering a money laundering case in the ambulance scam.

The ED action came exactly two weeks after the CBI registered a case into the irregularities to the tune of Rs 2.56 crore committed in operating the ambulance service. Besides Gehlot and Pilot, those named in the FIRs of CBI and ED is Karti, son of Chidambaram, and Ravi Krishna, son of Vayalar Ravi who is the co-founder of Ziqitza Health Care Ltd.

“The ED has taken cognisance of the CBI FIR to register its case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),” a senior official said.

Investigators said the ED suspects that the kickbacks paid in this scam were laundered by some people and used to acquire tainted assets. The probe will identify the beneficiaries, the official said.

The case pertains to the period when Congress was in power in the state when financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 2.56 crore were committed in operating the ambulance service.

Ziqitza Health Care Ltd got the tender to run the 108 ambulance service, which was a programme under the National Rural Health Mission. In 2012, the BJP stated that the company was being paid money for ambulances, which were only on paper. BJP leader and former Jaipur Mayor Pankaj Joshi also filed a police complaint.