Former Union Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel will appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning today over alleged deals between Millennium Developers, which is promoted by him and his wife Varsha, with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's close associate late Iqbal Mirchi's family members. The ED will also grill the former aviation minister over financial transactions with over a dozen shell companies and will record his statement under the sections of Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act.

The ED has posed four questions to Patel asking him about the identity of promoters of his company Millennium Group, whether he met Iqbal Mirchi and Humayun Merchant and if he travelled to London during 2006-2007.

Patel's firm Millennium Developers Pvt Ltd had constructed a 15-storey building called Ceejay House in 2006-07 on a plot which was allegedly owned by Mirchi.

Patel, however, has denied any wrongdoing or any links with Mirchi or his associates.

"All these issues have been in public domain, she has been a taxpayer, there were no restrictions on her and 20 years ago, she was issued a passport to travel to UAE and Saudi Arabia," IANS quoted Patel as saying.

This fresh controversy has caused a major embarrassment to the NCP ahead of October 21 Maharashtra state assembly elections forcing Patel to end his election campaign tour to address the media.

Speaking on the issue, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said any type of financial dealing with mobster Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company is an act of treason and asked Praful Patel to clarify on the matter. He further said that Sharad Pawar should take responsibility adding that he would be surprised if he is not aware of this transaction by his right-hand man.

Trouble mounted for the former Union Civil Aviation Minister when ED documents revealed that he had frequently used private jets of Wadhawans, accused in the Rs 4,355 crore Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) bank scam.

The documents revealed that Patel during his tenure as Union Minister of Heavy Industry frequent used Wadhawans' luxury private jet Bombardier Challenger 300.

The BJP had launched an all-out attack against the NCP and Patel for the alleged business transactions with Iqbal Mirchi ahead of next week's assembly elections.

Addressing a rally in Maharashtra’s Jalna the PM launched a scathing attack on the Congress-NCP alliance claiming that these two parties were “crumbling” and cornered the NCP over corruption.