Iqbal Mirchi’s family get court notice in PMLA case

Mumbai, Dec 18: A special PMLA court in Mumbai has issued notices to three family members of late gangster Iqbal Mirchi under the fugitive economic offenders law, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Thursday.

The notice has been issued against Junaid Iqbal Memon, Asif Iqbal Memon (sons of Mirchi) and Hajra Memon (wife) under section 10(4) of the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act of 2018, the central agency said in a statement.

The ED had moved the court early this month (December 3) to get the three family members of Mirchi declared as violators of this law.

The Mumbai court, it said, "also directed to issue the notices to the interested parties and fixed the date of appearance of the accused persons till February 16 next year and adjourned the matter".

The ED has also sought, in the same application made on December 3, confiscation of 15 Indian properties, including the third and fourth floor of Ceejay House (in Mumbai) having market value of about ₹ 96 crore and six bank accounts having balance of ₹ 1.9 crore.

The ED had filed a money laundering case against Mirchi, who died at the age of 63 in London in 2013, his family and others last year after studying multiple Mumbai Police FIRs lodged against them.

The agency had alleged Mirchi "indirectly owned various properties in and around Mumbai".

It has filed a criminal case against Mirchi and those linked to him to probe the money laundering charges linked to their alleged illegal dealings in the purchase and sale of costly real estate assets in Mumbai.

Mirchi was alleged to be the right-hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.
Properties worth about ₹ 798 crore have been attached by the agency till now in this case.

Under the FEO Act, a person can be declared a fugitive economic offender if a warrant has been issued against him for an offence involving an amount of ₹ 100 crore or more and he has left the country and refuses to return.

Businessmen Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and four promoters/directors of Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech company, facing similar money laundering charges, have been declared fugitive economic offenders in the past on the basis of investigations done by the ED.

An open ended non-bailable warrant has also been issued by a special PMLA court in Mumbai against the three family members of Mirchi after a charge sheet was filed against them by the ED.

The three are stated to be based abroad and have till now evaded ED's summons and the court-issued warrants.