ED quizzes Raj Kundra for 9 hrs; he says never met Iqbal Mirchi

Questioned over alleged dealings with builder accused of brokering realty deals between Mirchi and Sunblink

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned businessman Raj Kundra, husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, for nine hours as part of its ongoing probe against real estate dealings involving the late Dawood Ibrahim aide, Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi.

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Kundra, who was summoned in the case, reached the ED office in south Mumbai’s Ballard Pier on Wednesday morning. While leaving the ED office in the evening, Kundra said he had co-operated with the agency. When asked if he had ever met Iqbal Mirchi, he replied: “Never.”

He was called over his alleged dealings with a city-based businessman, Ranjeet Bindra, who is accused of brokering real estate deals between Mirchi and M/s Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Limited, the developer firm at the centre of controversy. Bindra was arrested on October 11 and is currently in judicial custody.

The ED has alleged that in 2011, Bindra’s firm, RKW Developers Private Limited, gave an unsecured loan of ₹3.46 crore to Essential Hospitality, a firm in which Shetty and Kundra were directors.

The couple resigned from the company in 2013. The transactions are being probed.

Kundra, in two tweets on October 23, said: “In 2011, I sold a plot that I owned near the airport, including the company, to RKW developers. Everything is documented and verified by my CA. This is the be all and end all of the deal. Any loans given to the company in question were after we sold the company to the new owner. We sold a zero-debt company! We have never taken a single loan. It was taken by the new owners of the company.”

The agency is looking into three properties that Mirchi bought in 1986 from Mohammad Yusuf Trust. The trust “wrongly claimed” before various courts that the properties still belonged to them, after which they were released and returned to them in 2005, the ED alleged. “The trust was used as a front to negotiate with developers,” an ED officer alleged.

The chairperson of the trust, British national Haroun Yusuf, has been arrested in the case.

Other accused arrested in the case are businessman Humayun Merchant, who facilitated a deal to redevelop the three buildings being probed, and Bengaluru resident Rinku Deshpande, who is accused of being the broker between Mirchi, Merchant and Sunblink.