ED raids property owned by Congress leader Baba Siddique and others

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday raided the premises owned by Maharashtra Congress leader Baba Siddique, Rafique Maqbul Qureshi and others in relation to their alleged role in the Mumbai slum rehabilitation scam. Searches were conducted in at least half a dozen locations.

In 2014, the Bandra police had registered an FIR, on directions of a local court, to probe alleged financial irregularities in a slum rehabilitation project launched in suburban Bandra. Siddique allegedly committed fraud to develop a plot under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority(SRA) scheme. He allegedly manipulated the records of the plot belonging to the state government to develop it under SRA through a builder associated with him.

The ED has registered a criminal case against Siddique and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act
(PMLA) based on the local police ‘s FIR. The agency also suspects the use of certain ‘front’ or ‘benami ‘ companies in committing the alleged irregularities and hence the raids are being conducted to gather more evidence, they said.

Siddique will record his statement in front of ED in a couple of days, currently, he is overseas.