india

Updated: Aug 18, 2015 01:52 IST

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to send a team of senior officials to United Kingdom to expedite the sharing of information on assets held there by late Iqbal Mirchi — an alleged former aide of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. The visit would also explore the possibility of attaching the UK-based assets of Iqbal Mirchi.

The team to be sent to London will seek to expedite ED’s recent formal request —‘Source Query’— sent to UK via diplomatic channels, said a government source familiar with the probe. The source said the ED team would focus on the handover of critical details connected allegedly to Mirchi’s hawala operations.

The ED’s move is a part of its probe into the alleged Rs 3,000-crore worldwide money-laundering network of the fugitive’s ‘D-company’ gang.

In the ED scanner are a few lucrative properties in London acquired allegedly by Mirchi or his associates. Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, is suspected to have laundered the gang’s illegal funds through hawala transactions by investing in assets in 10-odd countries.

The agency has sought details on other such properties under its scanner in Cyprus, Spain, Morocco and Turkey; other such assets in the scanner are located in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

ED has also zeroed in on six alleged Mirchi properties in Mumbai and had earlier sought details on them from local authorities. The agency has sought details from the Reserve Bank of India on alleged banking transactions related to Mirchi and his associates. The ED suspects Mirchi’s properties could be managed by individuals connected to the gang.

Globally, around 50 allegedly ‘tainted’ assets across 10-odd countries, around 40-odd firms and 20 bank accounts are under the ED scanner, according to the source.

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