The Enforcement Directorate is preparing to send a “judicial request” to the United Kingdom to get details about the overseas assets allegedly acquired by late Iqbal Mirchi, a long-time associate of fugitive Pakistan-based don Dawood Ibrahim.
According to sources, the agency wants to obtain information on the finances, bank accounts and assets of Mirchi and his associates which are suspected to be created by him illegally in the UK through dubious ways like hawala, which indicates routing of tainted funds by skirting banking channels. “The agency has sent its draft judicial request to the ministry of home affairs for final approval”, sources said.
“Mirchi, who died in 2013 in the UK, is suspected to have laundered and moved funds through the hawala route to purchase a host of properties in at least 10 or more countries with the help of his associates”, sources said.
The agency had earlier also written to the Mumbai police Crime Branch, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Maharashtra land records authorities, seeking their cooperation in the probe that involved about 50 tainted assets in over 10 countries.
The ED had earlier also issued notices to family members of Mirchi in connection with its investigation conducted under the FEMA. The agency will soon initiate process to attach Mirchi’s overseas properties through diplomatic channels, sources said.
Investigations by the ED into Rs 3,000 crore global money laundering ring of the infamous D-company have revealed that associates of Mirchi allegedly acquired several properties in London and Singapore also. The agency will soon initiate process to attach Mirchi’s overseas properties through diplomatic channels, sources said. The ED has also approached authorities concerned in Cyprus, Turkey, Spain and Morocco to get details about properties allegedly owned by Mirchi and his associates there, they added.
The agency also contacted the Reserve Bank of India to obtain dossiers on Mirchi and his associates’ business and banking operations in India, sources said. The investigators suspect a good tranche of money from the sale of these assets have reached the pockets of Dawood even as probe suggests that a number of these assets purchased by Mirchi and his family are being operated by gangsters deputed by the mafia don who too left India soon after the 1993 blasts and his been elusive since.
