ED may attach Ceejay House

The Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the alleged property deals of the late gangster Iqbal Mirchi and former Union Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel, is all set to attach the controversial 15 storey Ceejay House.

The ED believes that the Mirchi family used the proceeds of crime to acquire the property.

The revelation came after the ED questioned the former Minister for over 12 hours in connection with the money laundering case.

A senior ED official related to the probe told IANS: "During questioning, Patel accepted that he had deals with the family members of Mirchi." The official said that in his statement to the agency, the NCP leader said that he was not aware that Iqbal Memon aka Iqbal Mirchi was the "same man". "And thus he was completely in the dark, who Hajra Memon was when the deal between the Millenium Developers was signed with Memon," the official said.

The official also added that Patel in his statement to the financial probe agency has said that the deal between the Millenium Developers, controlled by him and his wife Varsha were finalised by a relative, who died a few years ago.

Last week, though while addressing a press conference, Patel claimed that Mirchi's wife Hajra Memon had got the two floor in the Ceejay House through MK Mohammad, who earlier owned restaurants on the property that was knotted in legal disputes.The ED has so far identified several properties of Mirchi and his family members in India, United Arab Emirates and the UK, which it suspects to have been brought from the proceeds of crime.