Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched over a dozen office and residential premises of the promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) and its associated firms on Saturday, in connection with a purported loan extended to a realty firm which is being probed at present for its suspected links to the late fugitive druglord Iqbal Mirchi.
Sources said the searches took place at the DHFL office at the Bandra-Kurla Complex and the residential premises of Dheeraj and Kapil Dewan by ED officers all through Saturday. The searches are likely to continue.
Earlier this week, while seeking the custody of Haroun Yusuf, a former chairman of the Sir Mohammad Yusuf Trust, and Ranjit Singh Bindra, a middleman, in connection with a Rs. 227-crore deal with Iqbal Mirchi for three properties in Worli, the ED had indicated loans worth Rs 2,186 crore released by an NBFC to Sunblink Developers. Though the agency had not identified the lender, it had claimed that the remitted money had been laundered out of the country by Sunblink towards payment to firms linked to Mirchi in Dubai. Apprehensions were raised over use of the money towards terror funding.
