Iqbal Mirchi (File photo)
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday provisionally attached assets worth Rs 700.27 crore belonging to late gangster Iqbal Mirchi, a close associate of India’s most wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim, and his family, officials told news agency PTI.In March, the Enforcement Directorate moved a special PMLA court under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEO) seeking to permanently confiscate 15 assets worth around Rs 700 crore belonging to late drug smuggler Iqbal Memon, also known as Iqbal Mirchi, and his family in Mumbai and Dubai. The plea includes Worli properties, comprising Rabia Mansion, Marium Lodge, and Sea View properties, and around 15 properties in Dubai, including Hotel Midwest Apartment in Bur Dubai and over a dozen commercial and residential units in the Business Bay and DEC Towers.The ED alleged that the family acted as the beneficial owners of these properties, utilising trust entities in India and corporate holdings in Dubai to project tainted assets as legitimate wealth. “The fugitive has refused to come to India and he has already been declared a Fugitive Economic Offender. The…case has international ramifications and as observed by the SC [Supreme Court] economic offences are grave… and need to be viewed seriously… it is prayed that the accused be dealt with strictly…and order for confiscation of the assets,” the ED said in its plea. In 2021, the court declared Mirchi’s wife Hajra and sons Asif and Junaid fugitive economic offenders under the FEO Act after they did not return to India despite summons issued in the money laundering case. Under the Act, the court is authorised to order the confiscation of properties.Tracing the history back to 1986, the ED found that Mirchi originally acquired the Worli plots from the Sir Mohammad Yusuf Trust for Rs. 6.5 lakh through a partnership firm. To evade government attachment, a ‘Caretaker Agreement’ was allegedly fabricated in 1991, allowing the trust to appear as the owner, while Mirchi maintained actual control. Currently, these plots, measuring nearly 5,000 sq m, are valued at Rs 497 crore.The ED also pointed to the family’s real estate portfolio with the money siphoned off to Dubai. This most expensive is Hotel Midwest Apartment in Bur Dubai, valued at AED 9.3 crore (approximately Rs 233 crore). The ownership is split among the family members. Junaid and Asif each hold a 40 per cent stake, while Hajra holds the remaining 20 per cent.
