Iqbal Mirchi case: Woman sent to judicial custody

Mumbai: A holiday court in charge of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court Friday remanded a 45-year-old woman, arrested for allegedly helping fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim’s aide Iqbal Mirchi launder money, to judicial custody.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Rinku Deshpande earlier this week for allegedly fabricating and forging documents of immoveable properties to help Mirchi launder money. After being arrested on October 23, the PMLA court remanded  Deshpande to ED custody till October 25. When her custody got over Friday, the probe agency produced her before the holiday court which remanded her to judicial custody.

According to the ED, Mr Mirchi had purchased three properties – Sea View, Marium Lodge and Rabia Mansion – of the Sir Mohammad Yusuf Trust in September 1986 for '6.5 lakh through his Rockside Enterprise. The properties, admeasuring 1,537 square metres, are located in the Worli area of Mumbai.

According to the prosecution, Ms Deshpande forged documents to show herself as a tenant in one of the properties dealt in by Mr Mirchi and his associates. According to the ED, Ms Deshpande received '30.40 crore in her bank accounts and the money was distributed among brokers, including her. The agency further claimed that in her statement, she acknowledged being a “fake confirming party” in the deal and admitted to receiving '30.40 crore.

So far, the central probe agency has made four arrests in the case. While Mr Mirchi's aide Humayun Merchant was arrested here Monday, two others – Haroun Aleem Yusuf and Ranjeet Singh Bindra – were held early this month for allegedly facilitating these deals. Mr Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was allegedly a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim in the latter’s drug-trafficking and extortion rackets.