ED Conducts Searches Against Underworld-Linked Operatives In Mumbai

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted multiple searches in Mumbai as part of a money laundering probe into the operations of the underworld and linked illegal property deals and hawala transactions, official sources said.

About ten locations, including those linked to 1993 Mumbai blasts' mastermind Dawood Ibrahim's late sister Haseena Parkar, his brother Iqbal Kaskar and a brother-in-law of gangster Chota Shakeel's in Maharashtra's capital city, were covered.

The action was undertaken under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), ED sources said.

The ED case is based on an FIR filed recently by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Ibrahim, a fugitive gangster, and others. The NIA had filed its criminal complaint under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The agency sources said it also had some independent intelligence inputs into the real estate, hawala transactions and extortion bids linked to the Mumbai underworld and its operatives.

The anti-money laundering agency is understood to have recovered documents related to these alleged illegal property deals with links to Indian businessmen operating here and in Dubai, the sources said.

Some political links to these shady deals are also under the scanner of the agency.