Iqbal Mirchi case: Two get bail; pleas for two rejected

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Saturday rejected the bail pleas of Haroun Yusuf and Humayun Merchant, the alleged associates of late

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Saturday rejected the bail pleas of Haroun Yusuf and Humayun Merchant, the alleged associates of late gangster Iqbal Mirchi. The court, however, granted bail to Ranjeet Bindra, an alleged middleman in a redevelopment deal of Mirchi’s property, and Rinku Deshpande, through whom Bindra allegedly received his commission.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested the four for allegedly laundering Mirchi’s money, which the central agency suspects was earned through illegal activities since 1985.

The Central agency alleged that Mirchi had purchased three properties – Sea View, Marium Lodge and Rabia Mansion – through his company M/s Rockside in 1986, belonging to Mohammad Yusuf Trust, for ₹6.5 lakh. ED said the properties were bought from crime proceeds.

The agency added that when Mirchi bought the properties, Yusuf was chairman of the Mohammad Yusuf Trust. On searching the trust’s premises, ED found that it had received complete payment from Mirchi for the properties and handed over their possession to him in 1986. However, ED claimed that Yusuf misrepresented before several agencies and courts that the properties are still owned by the trust.

As per ED’s case, Merchant is allegedly a “frontman”, who was given power of attorney for property-related deals by Mirchi after the latter fled the country. The agency alleged that Merchant “planted” tenants to purportedly usurp the properties.

While describing Merchant’s role, ED said he facilitated the deal to develop these buildings. He allegedly approached a developer, Joy Home Creation Pvt Ltd. A meeting between the Joy Home Creation’s director Jayesh Soni and Mirchi was also arranged by Merchant in London.

Mirchi, however, threatened Soni to exit the said property after he failed to pay ₹11 crore as promised. Later in 2010, M/s Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd entered into the project and a deal was struck for the surrender of tenancy rights in favour of Sunblink for ₹225 crore.

In this deal for redevelopment with Sunblink, ED claimed that Bindra acted as mediator. He was paid a commission of around ₹50 crore, which was received in Rinku Deshpande’s account. She then transferred the money to Bindra, the agency stated.