ED asks court to deem Iqbal Mirchi's family as fugitive economic offenders

The Enforcement Directorate has moved a Mumbai court to get three family members of late gangster Iqbal Mirchi declared as fugitive economic offenders followed by confiscation of their assets, the agency said on Friday.

It said an application has been filed under section 4 (read with) section 12 of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018 before the court "with a prayer to declare Junaid Iqbal Memon, Asif Iqbal Memon (sons of Mirchi) and Hajra Memon (wife) as fugitive economic offenders".

The central probe agency said in a statement that the application also seeks confiscation of their assets as envisaged under the law.

"In the first phase, prayer has been made for confiscation of 15 Indian properties including the 3rd and 4th floor of Ceejay House (in Mumbai) having market value of about Rs 96 crore and six bank accounts having balance of Rs 1.9 crore."

"Prayer has also been made for allowing ED to file supplementary applications under the fugitive economic offenders law," it said.

Mirchi, his family and others are being probed by the ED under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and properties worth about Rs 798 crore have been attached by it till now in this case.

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.