E-Paper
ED attaches gangster Iqbal Mirchi’s bank accounts, properties worth ₹22.42 crore
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached seven immovable properties and bank balances in seven accounts totalling ₹22.42 crore, all belonging
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached seven immovable properties and bank balances in seven accounts totalling ₹22.42 crore, all belonging to kins of late gangster Iqbal Mirchi, under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The fresh attachments include one cinema hall, a hotel in Mumbai and an under-construction hotel, a farmhouse, two bungalows and 3.5-acre land in Panchgani and bank balances, totalling to ₹22.42 crores, the ED has stated.
The attachment was done under section 5 of PMLA.
In the past, ED has attached assets totalling to ₹776 crore, including overseas assets valued at ₹203 crore in the case. Now the total attachment, in this case, has gone to ₹798 Crore.
The central agency has initiated money laundering investigation against Mirchi and others on September 26, 2019.
ED had arrested five accused persons including Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), and Humayun Merchant.
A prosecution complaint has also been filed in the case on December 9 last year before the special PMLA court and cognizance of the same has been taken by the court.
Open-ended non-bailable warrants have been issued against Asif Memon, Junaid Memon (both sons of Iqbal Mirchi) and Hajra Memon (wife of Iqbal Memon) for their role in the offence of money laundering.
The ED probe so far has revealed that the DHFL allegedly extended loans to Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd, which purportedly routed money to Mirchi, who died in the UK in August 2013. The DHFL came under the ED’s scanner when the agency was examining three properties linked to Mirchi in Worli.
The ED’s investigation has shown that in 1986, Mirchi, an aide of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, bought three properties from the Mohammad Yusuf Trust, an organisation that Mirchi allegedly used as a front to negotiate with several developers. In 2010, when Mirchi was based in Dubai, Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd bought three properties from him and later developed them.
According to the ED, Mirchi signed agreements in 2010, in which he received 90 million dirhams for development rights of these properties. All these are proceeds of crime, ED had said.
