Under ED scanner over ‘govt fund laundering’, Cong ex-MLA: Who is Salman Khurshid’s wife Louise

As the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged Monday that senior Congress leader and ex-Union minister Salman Khurshid’s wife Louise Khurshid and two others “laundered” Rs 71.50 lakh in central government funds meant for disabled people for their personal gain through a trust, it put the spotlight back on Louise, the 69-year-old former Congress MLA from Kaimganj in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad district.

In the Congress circles, Louise is mainly known for assisting her husband in party works or his public outreach, even as she has also been engaged in social service in and around Farrukhabad.

Louise is also known for being an outspoken leader. She was recently in the news after a video of one of her meetings at Kaimganj went viral, where she was purportedly heard telling Congress workers to confront senior party leaders who “pretend not to recognise” Khurshid or her.

The ED has provisionally attached 15 agricultural land parcels located in Farrukhabad and some bank deposits, worth a combined Rs 45.92 lakh, of the Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust, under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED claimed its probe had found that “grant-in-aid of Rs 71.50 lakh received by the trust was not utilised to hold camps sanctioned by the Government of India, but was instead laundered by trust representative late Pratyush Shukla, trust secretary Mohammad Athar, and project director Louise Khurshid, for the interest of the trust and their personal gain”. In this way, the fund, which had been received as grant-in-aid in 2009-10, was allegedly laundered for their personal gain, which the ED called “proceeds of crime”.

The case stems from 17 FIRs filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Uttar Pradesh Police in 2017. A