The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth ₹22.42 crore including a hotel and a film studio in Mumbai belonging to the family members of late gangster Iqbal Mirchi, officials said on Tuesday.
Other assets, attached under prevention of money laundering act, include a farm house, two bungalows and 3.5 acre land in Panchgani, they added.
So far, ED said in a statement, it has attached assets worth ₹798 crore belonging to Mirchi’s family. These assets include overseas properties worth ₹203 crore.
Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right-hand man of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim for drug trafficking and extortion crimes.
“He (Mirchi) was an international drugs dealer and smuggler who had amassed huge wealth and acquired various immovable properties and businesses across the globe,” the ED had said last year in a statement.
According to the anti-money laundering probe agency, Mirchi indirectly owned various properties in and around Mumbai.
It has filed a criminal case against Mirchi, his family and others last year to probe money laundering charges linked to their alleged illegal dealings in the purchase and sale of real estate assets in Mumbai. The probe is based on multiple FIRs lodged by the Mumbai police over the years.
A charge sheet had also been filed against the family members before a Mumbai court in December 2019 and the court had subsequently issued open-ended non-bailable warrants against Mirchi’s sons Asif Memon and Junaid Memon and wife Hajra Memon.
By Hnidustan Times
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