ED raids home, offices of Congress leader Baba Siddique

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday raided seven locations, including the offices and residence of former state minister and Congress leader Baba Siddique in connection with their investigation into financial irregularities in a slum redevelopment project in Bandra.

The FIR against him was registered in 2014 and the ED probe began under the Prevention Of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), after registering a case earlier this month. In addition to Siddiqui the residence and offices of Rafiq Qureshi of Pyramid Developers were also raided.

The case first came to light in 2012, after a social activist approached the Bandra Magistrate court, asking them to direct the police to register an FIR against Qureshi for major irregularities carried out in the rehabilitation project of the Jamaat-e-Jamooria slum in Bandra when Siddique was the chief of the Maharashtra Housing And Area Development Authority (MHADA) in 2002.

The activist alleged that Qureshi was acting under the guidance and protection of the MLA.

In 2014, the Bandra police station, acting under a court order, registered an FIR against Siddiqui, Qureshi and a Najmuddi Mithi Borwala.  The Asian Age could not reach Siddiqui and Qureshi for their comments.

Earlier this month, the ED booked Siddiqui and Qureshi under provisions of the PMLA, and on Wednesday, raided the offices and residences of both. “We conducted raids in seven locations in Bandra. These belong to Siddiqui and a real estate developer,” said a source from the ED.  They also seized various documents and bank transaction records.

 According to the source, the irregularities relate to the allotment of flats, wherein the accused facilitated the accquistion of more than one flat in the SRA project by a single individual.  He said that the original FIR alleges that the developer gained extra FSI by submitting forged documents. “We are investigating whether the real estate developer and the other accused were involved in financial irregularities while completing the project,” said a senior officer. They will also be looking at the money trail of the project, which is said to be worth at least Rs 400 crore.

Siddiqui allegedly approved the project and was involved in it during his tenure as the chairman of the Mumbai division of MHADA.

“We have to look into the finances of the project while the other agencies will have to look at the irregularities of  the building project,” said the source.