Indian designers Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra and Ritu Kumar summoned by Enforcement Directorate

Celebrated Indian designers Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra and Ritu Kumar will be questioned by India’s federal agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) in relation to money received from Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira.

According to reports, a notice has been sent to these top designers in connection with cash payments made to them a few years ago by Khiara. This MLA, who recently joined the Congress, is being probed for alleged drug smuggling and a fake passport racket.

“We have information that Khaira paid money to the tune of several lakhs to the three designers in cash in 2018-19,” an ED official told Indian Express. But Khaira has rejected their allegations.

“I am not the person to answer this, you either ask the ED or the designers. I had purchased wedding dresses like lehangas worth Rs3-4 lakh… [Rs300,000-400,000 or Dh14,845-19,793] two-three items… How big a case of money laundering is this?… It was a very meagre purchase for the wedding of my daughter,” claimed Khiara in a separate interview with Indian Express.

In 2016, Khaira’s daughter Simmer married Inderveer Singh Johal, the grandson of the late Darbara Singh, former chief minister of Punjab, in a grand ceremony.

Sabyasachi, Malhotra and Ritu Kumar are the most preferred designers when it comes to Bollywood star weddings and well-heeled Indians.