UPA-Era Minister Praful Patel Summoned By ED For Alleged Money Laundering Links With Dawood Aide Iqbal Mirchi

Praful Patel, a senior politician with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and a former civil aviation minister in the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, was summoned by Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his alleged links with gangster and Drug smuggler Iqbal Mirchi, reports First Post.

However the former central minister has denied any link with Mirchi or his wife Hajrah and said, "There is not even a single paisa worth property transaction between the Patel family and Hajrah Memon."

Mirchi, who died in 2013, was an aide of fugitive underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim, who was responsible for Mumbai serial bomb blast in 1993.

ED has claimed, Millennium Developers, a firm run by Praful Patel, transferred two floors in Mumbai's Ceejay House to Hajrah in 2007 "towards the beneficial interest of Mirchi in the land" on which it was built.

However Praful Patel said,"My family owns Millennium. No one else is a partner."

Asked if this allegation was politically motivated, Patel Said, "You (media) have a better idea as some papers of which even I wasn't aware have come your way."

According to Patel, Ceejay House property was purchased by Patel's family in 1963 from the Scindias, the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior.