Airline seat scam case: Praful Patel not to appear before ED today

Former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel will not appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday for questioning in connection with the multi-crore rupee airline seat allocation scam case. Patel told ANI, "Due to prior commitments, I have requested the Enforcement Directorate for another date."

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was on June 1 summoned by the agency to appear before it on June 6 in connection with the case. On March 30, the ED had filed a charge sheet against the accused corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar in which the name of the former minister had also come up.

The agency had alleged that Talwar, who is accused of facilitating the dispersal of profit-making routes of Air India to private airlines, was in touch with Patel. "Talwar finalised various communications on behalf of Emirates and Air Arabia to be addressed to the then Minister of Civil Aviation Praful Patel," Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) DP Singh, appearing for the agency, had told Special CBI Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj on May 1.

Talwar was extradited from Dubai on January 30. 

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