ED notice to Praful Patel over his deal with Iqbal Mirchi, close aide of Dawood Ibrahim, what is the whole story?

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is investigating an alleged land deal between Iqbal Mirchi, a close aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former union minister, Praful Patel, has sent the latter notice to appear before it on October 18 at its New Delhi office. The ED is investigating the legal agreement between Milliennium Developers Private Limited, promoted by Praful Patel’s family and Iqbal Mirchi’s family,.

The ED has alleged that under this deal, a plot owned by the Mirchi’s at Worli was given to the company promoted by the Patel family. The former union minister however in a clarification issued here on Wednesday denied any wrong doings. Iqbal Mirchi was a close associate of fugitive underworld don and prime accused in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, Dawood Ibrahim. In August 2013, Iqbal Mirchi died of a heart attack.

The entire probe of the ED hangs on the former union minister and senior NCP leader Praful Patel and the alleged land deal with the aide of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, Iqbal Mirchi. The ED alleges that there was a financial deal between the Praful Patel family promoted company Milliennium Developers Private Limited and Iqbal Mirchi. The 63 year old Iqbal Mirchi was also facing charges of drug smuggling in India and was also under the lens of the investigation agencies for his alleged role in the IPL match fixing and betting scandal.

Iqbal Mirchi was arrested by the Scotland Yard in 1995 on charges of drug trafficking and terrorism and was granted an indefinite exemption from staying in Great Britain in 2001 after the investigators found no criminal activity during their investigations in 1999. Although he was arrested for threatening to kill a person in 2011, he was released for want of evidence. In both the cases, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had sought his extradition to India, however, despite the intervention of the Foreign Ministry, Britain did not accept the plea.

According to the ED’s contention, Iqbal Mirchi’s wife Hazra Memon had executed a property deal with Patel’s family. The ED claims that Milliennium Developers Private Limited, a firm run by Praful Patel, built two floors of 14,000 square feet at CJ House in 2007 for “beneficial interests of Iqbal Mirchi on the ground”, under a registered agreement with Iqbal Mirchi’s wife Hazra.

Mirchi bought most of the property in the name of his wife and his sons and has several plots at prime locations in Worli, Mumbai. The plot on which Mirchi’s discotheque “Fisherman’s Warf” at Worli was constructed in 1980 and named after Hazra. The ED is in possession of the land ownership documents of the plot between 1999 and 2007. According to ED, there is evidence in one of the documents of a deal between Hazra and Millennium Developers to redevelop this plot.

Speaking to newspersons yesterday, the NCP leader has clarified that the financial deal between his family and that of Iqbal Mirchi’s family was done legally. Patel narrated the entire history of the land of how the disputed land was under the supervision of the Bombay High Court and that a man named MK Mohammed had in 1990 sold the land to Hazra Iqbal Memon under court supervision. He said that after that there were some disputes with his Patel family after the deal was signed with Iqbal Memon in 2004. Patel argued that the deal happened in front of the Mumbai City District Collector and added that if Iqbal Memon was tainted the administration would have stayed the deal at that time itself.

Giving further details of the history of the land, Patel disclosed that the land was sold by Madhavrao Jeevaji Rao Scindia to some people in 1963 that included 21 people from his family. The CJ House is built on Plot F and was built in 1970. After his fathers death (Praful Patel’s father), there were some family disputes and the land issue went to the court. Since 1978 the said plot of land was under the supervision of the Bombay High Court.

Patel argued that some people had built illegal buildings behind the CJ House building. Actually there were two restaurants which were illegally occupied. They were in the name of MK Mohammed and the court receiver was asked for an settlement of Rs 7 lakhs on March 21, 1998. Since the court ordered, the possession of the land went to him. On April 4, 1990, he sold that land to Hazra Iqbal Memon under the supervision of the court, which was the history of the land till 1990.

The ED has linked it to the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC Bank), wherein some papers in which it has been revealed that Praful Patel used a private jet of PMC Bank scams main accused Rakesh Wadhavan and his son Sarang. Both were promoters of the Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) in 2012, when Praful Patel was the Union Minister. According to the passenger manifest of Private Privilege Airways, Patel used the jet 8 times in 2012 with Wadhavan being a majority stakeholder.

The HDIL had owed Rs 4,335.46 crore to PMC Bank which was not repaid since 2008. Due to which the bank account holders are now facing problems. The ED has seized assets worth Rs 3,830 crore, including two jet aircraft’s – Bombardier Challenger 300 and Falcon 200.