Top politicians’ names emerge in D-company deals, ED probes links
| Date :13-Oct-2019 |
MUMBAI :
AMID Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) crackdown on the aides of late drug kingpin Iqbal Mirchi, who was a leading member of D-company, can set off trouble for big political guns, including a former Civil Aviation Minister. The ED officials are questioning two aides of Mirchi on their links with politicians and builders, who were allegedly involved in transaction of prime properties reportedly belonging to D-company. According to a senior ED official, Mirchi’s aides Haroun Yusuf and Ranjit Singh Bindra were involved in the sale of three prime properties, allegedly owned by Mirchi, who died in 2013. These buildings are Rabia Mansion, Mariam Lodge and Sea View -- all located in the posh Worli area, here. According to initial investigations, in the mid-1980s the properties were purchased by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim using a trust as a front.
Later, the trust transferred the properties to Mirchi, who had shifted his base to the UK. According to ED sources, Bindra, a millionaire property dealer, is known for his links in the political and corporate circles. While Bindra approached the high and mighty, it was Yusuf who facilitated money transactions -- mainly through hawala. Yusuf was backed by D-company to take over as chairman of the Sir Mohd Yusuf Trust, the actual owner of buildings as shown in the registry documents. The deals were carried in layers to camouflage Mirchi’s ownership. As per the ED findings, the properties were purchased through the Dawood-Mirchi group’s crime proceeds.
The properties were transferred in an illegal manner to Mirchi in early 1990s, sources said. During the Mumbai serial blast probe, these properties were identified with D-company and were attached. ED gets 5-day remand of Iqbal Mirchi’s aides in land deal case: TWO associates of Muhammed Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi have been sent to five days remand of Enforcement Directorate (ED) by a local court till October 15 in connection with a land deal worth over Rs 200 crore.
The duo, identified as Haroun Yousuf and Ranjit Singh Bindra, were close aides of Mirchi, an international drug dealer who died in the United Kingdom in 2013. As they both failed to provide the facts during the course of the investigation, the ED arrested them on Friday for their non-cooperation in the case.