Iqbal Mirchi’s assets in Worli, Dubai set to be attached under FEO Act

The properties are likely to be attached within a week as part of ED’s money-laundering investigation into Mirchi.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has initiated steps to attach immovable assets in Worli and Dubai, linked to deceased narcotics trafficker Iqbal Mirchi and his family. The properties will be attached under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) after the agency received the green signal from a special court.

IQBAL MIRCHI - CRIMINAL whose real name is Mohammed Iqbal Memon

The properties are likely to be attached within a week as part of ED’s money-laundering investigation into Mirchi. They include Worli-based land parcels on which three buildings – Sea View, Marium Lodge and Rabia Mansion – once stood on Dr Annie Besant Road.

Mirchi had allegedly acquired the properties from a trust in 1986 for ₹6.5 lakh through his partnership firm, Rockside Enterprises. The properties were handed over to him in 1991.

The ED had earlier attached the three Worli properties in 2019 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Under PMLA, they can be confiscated only on conclusion of the trial, whereas under FEOA, they can be confiscated before the trial ends, ED officials said.

Mirchi’s assets to be attached in Dubai comprise Hotel Midwest Apartment and 14 real-estate units in Corporate Bay and DEC Towers. While the Worli properties were owned by Mirchi, the Dubai-based assets are in the names of Mirchi’s wife Hajra Memon and sons Asif and Junaid. All of them are abroad and accused in the case for their alleged role in money-laundering. They have also been declared as ‘fugitive economic offenders’ by the court.

The money laundering investigation was initiated in September 2019, where Mirchi was accused of purchasing the three Worli buildings from the trust, then selling them to Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd in 2010 for ₹225 crore. The gangster is accused of using the money from the sale of these buildings to acquire assets in Dubai.

The chargesheet, filed in December 2019, had accused Mirchi of money laundering and using businesses controlled or owned in the UAE to acquire assets and to fund businesses in the UK after he left India in the early 90s.

Over the last few months, the ED’s Mumbai unit took possession of several other immovable assets linked to Mirchi and his family, acting on a court order for their seizure. These include a farmhouse in Mahabaleshwar, whose possession was taken on February 24. Its acquisition value is ₹6.43 crore. The agency also took possession of 3.5 acres of a land parcel in Wai, in Satara, valued at ₹1.99 crore. Also acquired was a portion of Barucha Bungalow in Panchgani, in Satara, and Meenas Hotel in Santacruz (west) in Mumbai.