The Enforcement Directorate on Friday questioned senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel for almost 12 hours in connection with his alleged links with gangster Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi, an aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.
Mr. Patel reached the ED office at Ballard Estate around 10.30 a.m. on Friday, amidst tight police bandobast around the building.
The ED’s contention is that Millenium Developers, a real estate firm owned by Mr. Patel, constructed the plush Ceejay House building in Worli in 2007 on a plot owned by Mirchi, after which its third and fourth floors were transferred to Mirchi’s wife Hajra Memon. The ED has invoked provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the case, stating that the land was bought by Mirchi using proceeds of illegal activities, including drug trafficking and extortion.
“With Mirchi’s family refusing to appear for inquiries in response to our summons, Mr. Patel’s questioning is crucial to establish certain facts of the case. We are primarily looking at the purchase of the land and the subsequent transfer of the third and fourth floor to Mirchi’s wife, and any evidence that we can find pertaining to the same,” an ED officer said.
Mr. Patel was also questioned on his association with the directors of Housing Development Infrastructure Limited, Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang, under arrest in the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank fraud case.
“We asked him on his use of a private jet belonging to the Wadhawans at least 10 to 12 times in 2013. Since we got custody of the Wadhawans only on Friday, we might examine this aspect later,” an ED officer said, adding Mr. Patel will be called again for questioning next week.
Mr. Patel, in a press conference recently, had rubbished ED’s claims and denied any links to Mirchi. A native of Mumbai, Mirchi became one of the top aides of Dawood Ibrahim, handling his drug dealing activities. His name also figured in the Panama Papers controversy.
In 2005, he was profiled by The Guardian , a United Kingdom-based news publication, which described his plush residence in the exclusive Hornchurch area of Essex. However, Mirchi had at the time denied any links to the underworld.