MUMBAI, MARCH 3: R K Pandey, Deputy Director of Enforcement, has denied that he was under any inquiry by the ED's special director S S Bajpai.Responding to a report in this paper (Another FERA deputy director faces inquiry, Feb 24), he also denied that that the diamonds seized during the search on December 24, 1999, were released only after the inquiry began. The diamonds were released following the procedure of assay panchnama done by experts, he said. Referring to the diamond traders' claim that the ED could not hold on to their stock-in-trade for unreasonably long periods, Pandey said there was no provision in the FERA Act in respect of seizure of stock-in-trade.Pandey said that his absence from office between February 1 and 14 was on account of marriages of relatives, and that he was away again after February 17 because of his brother's death and was not in any way related to the inquiry.Pandey, however, did not deny that Bajpai was in Mumbai between Jan 24-26, or that the trade had taken up the issue of the release of the goods with the ED authorities. Bajpai, this reporter maintains, was in town to look into all aspects of this case, among others.
