Tribunal Finds ED Action “Illegal”, Praful Patel Gets Back Rs 180 Crore Mumbai Flats

New Delhi: A Tribunal in Mumbai quashed an Enforcement Directorate (ED) order seeking to attach NCP leader Praful Patel’s properties worth over Rs 180 crore.

This order was passed by an Appellate Tribunal that deals with the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators Act, or SAFEMA.

Patel is a Rajya Sabha MP of the NCP led by Ajit Pawar, who is now a part of Maharashtra’s Mahayuti coalition with the BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.

The ED had seized the 12th and the 15th floors of Ceejay House in south Mumbai’s upscale Worli owned by Patel and his family.

These apartments priced around Rs 180 crore are registered in the name of Praful Patel’s wife Varsha and his company Millennium Developer.

The ED had alleged that the properties were acquired illegally from Hajra Memon – the widow and the first wife of Iqbal Mirchi, a drug mafia and gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s right-hand man.

Rejecting the ED’s attachment order, the tribunal said that the probe agency’s action against Patel was illegal since the properties were not involved in money laundering and were not linked to Mirchi.