ED seizes posh Mumbai properties worth over Rs 32 crore under FEMA

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 11

The Enforcement Directorate said on Saturday that it has seized two prime properties, worth over Rs 32 crore in connection with a FEMA case against a Mumbai-based woman for allegedly holding undisclosed assets abroad.

In an official statement the agency said: “An order under section 37A of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) was issued against Jaya Patel, the daughter of late Parmanand Tulsidas Patel”.

Two immovable assets located on Peddar Road in Mumbai, bearing a value of Rs 32.38 crore, have been seized as “equivalent value of property in India for illegally acquiring properties abroad”, the ED said.

The FEMA probe revealed that Jaya Patel of Mumbai had “illegally amassed” properties in foreign countries like the United States of America and the United Kingdom, it said.

“Searches were conducted at the residential and office premises of Jaya Patel and her associate which resulted in the seizure of incriminating documents about the illegal acquisition of undisclosed foreign assets,” the ED said in the statement.

Jaya Patel, it said, is associated with a British Virgin Islands-based firm, Ivory International Properties Ltd. “She is the beneficial owner of a flat at Chelsea Embankment, London, valued at British Pound15,25,000 and another in Central Park, New York, valued at US$ 25,60,000,” the enforcement agency said.

“Both assets were acquired through Ivory International Properties Ltd and probe found that the firm mortgaged the said real estate properties to obtain loan and Jaya Patel had signed as co-borrower in mortgage loan application form,” it alleged and said that she failed to explain the source of the funds for acquisition of these properties.

The ED said the funds “to acquire these overseas properties have been illegally transferred by violating sections of FEMA”. It also went on to add that investigation into the case is in progress.