ED hints at Praful Patel's link with Dawood aide in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) that is probing a case of money laundering, may soon attach 35 properties of Iqbal Mohammed Memon aka Iqbal Mirchi, an aide of absconding gangster Dawood Ibrahim, including two floors of Mumbai’s Ceejay House, developed by a firm run by NCP leader and former civil aviation minister Praful Patel, Indian Express reported on Tuesday (October 15).

According to the report, the directorate is likely to summon Patel and his wife Varsha, co-owners of Millennium Developers Pvt Ltd, which constructed Ceejay House in 2006-2007. ED said the third and fourth floors of the building were transferred in the name of Memon’s wife Hajra Iqbal in 2007 “towards the beneficial interest of Mirchi in the land” on which it was built. The directorate claims that the sale of land to Millennium Developers was through “dubious means” and that the proceeds of the sale were “laundered” by Memon.

The NCP, however, has denied of any involvement of Patel with Memon.

In a statement issued in this regard, the party said that the property bought by Patel’s family from the Maharaja of Gwalior in 1963, was with Court Receiver from 1978 to 2005 due to dispute among co-owners. Although, the premises behind the building had illegal occupants, they were relocated to the third floor when the building was re-developed by the Patel family. The statement also clarified that Ceejay House was not owned by Memon.