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Moin Qureshi slipped away 30 minutes into questioning

It took almost a year for the ED to raid Qureshi's premises. And when they finally called him for questioning, all they got was 30 minutes of his time

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Suspected hawala mastermind Moin Qureshi is proving to be as slippery as an eel for the Enforcement Directorate (ED). It has now emerged that the ED was able to question Qureshi for only 30 minutes after raiding his premises on February 26 this year.

The ED had summoned the hawala operator on February 26 after raiding his premises and other properties in Delhi. Qureshi reached the ED's regional office in the evening but left within 30 minutes into his questioning. "He said that his mother had suffered a stroke. He said she was under stress due to the investigations into family's ancestral meat export business," reveal ED sources.

The brief questioning has not helped ED make any progress in its investigations into charges of money laundering by Qureshi. Another date for a complete questioning of Qureshi is yet to be determined by the agency. dna had earlier reported how Qureshi was a regular visitor at the residence of Ranjit Sinha when he was the CBI director.

There are fears that crucial evidence on Qureshi's money trail may have been destroyed. The ED has maintained that the delay on part of the Income Tax department in sharing details with them has led to destruction of critical evidence. In a bid to counter the damage, the ED has written to a number of banks where Qureshi has current accounts for his meat export business. Sleuths will be getting details of all his transactions which will then be tallied with his books and other documents recovered by ED during raids at Qureshi's house and that of his other associates.

The ED has also issued summons to many of Qureshi's employees, including his personal secretary. The investigators have zeroed in on some of the employees after their names were found in documents recovered from another hawala operator named Parvez. The Old Delhi based Parvez was first raided by ED sleuths in February this year. Sources reveal that Qureshi's secretary made a number of calls to Parvez. She is believed to have coordinated a number of hawala transactions through which Parvez was routing Qureshi's export revenues earned from his beef trade to Dubai. "She had made a number of calls to Parvez regarding transactions worth several crores. We are yet to conclusively ascertain her role in money laundering. It is an ongoing investigation," reveals an ED source.

It took almost a year for the ED to raid Qureshi's premises. And when they finally called him for questioning, all they got was 30 minutes of his time. India's most notorious money launderer is proving to be more than just a smooth operator for India's investigators. It might take more than just summons to make him sing.

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