Mumbai: Barely a week before Maharashtra votes in the assembly poll, the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday asked the senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel to join the probe in a suspected terror-funding and money laundering case on Friday.
ED sources said that the summoning of Patel, the former Union aviation minister, became essential in the backdrop of the confirmation of a controversial sale deed dating back to 2007.
This deal was entered into by realty firm Millennium Developers Pvt Ltd and family members of the late fugitive drug kingpin Iqbal Mirchi. More incriminating is the fact that the realty firm is controlled by Patel, who was allegedly also a signatory to the sales deed (along with Mirchi's family members).
The deed was found during searches conducted by the agency at 11 locations in Mumbai and Bangalore, recently. Sources said that in furtherance to the JV, the land was used to construct the 15-storied tower, Ceejay House, at Dr Annie Besant Road in Worli, an address previously known as 'Shrini-ketan Building'.
As per the deed, Mirchi's first wife, Hajra, got 9,000 square feet carpet area on the third floor of the building and another 5,000 square feet on the fourth floor (14,000 square feet, in all) at Ceejay House, according to sources.
The properties were transferred to the fugitive's family in 2007, as per his beneficial interest in the land. The deed of confirmation, which is under the ED lens, features the firm (Millennium) as the ‘owners’, while Mirchi’s first wife and their two sons, including a minor (then), feature as other ‘co-owners’ who constituted 'attorney’, sources said.
The agency suspects that the proceeds of the sales in the transaction had been laundered to Mirchi. The agency claimed to have come across various incriminating documents, digital evidence and emails in relation to the property deals.
During the probe, the ED so far has identified 36 properties -- in Mumbai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Kingdom (UK)-- which had been acquired by Mirchi over a period of time, before his death in 2013.
Mirchi's brother-in-law (brother of Hajra), who is suspected to be the caretaker of these properties, is being quizzed by the agency.
