The Enforcement Directorate has ordered the seizure of domestic assets worth ₹32.38 crore of Mumbai-based Jaya Patel for illegally acquiring properties overseas.
The order for seizure of two Mumbai properties has been issued under Section 37 A of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The ED has also filed a complaint against Ms. Patel, daughter of the late Parmanand Tulsidas Patel, before the competent authority, with a request to confirm the order.
According to the ED, Ms. Patel is associated with Ivory International Properties Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
“She is only having a 1$/GBP share of Ivory International Properties. However, she is the beneficial owner of a flat at Chelsea Embankment, London valued at £15.25 lakh and another property at Central Park in the United States’ New York, worth about $25.60 lakh, both acquired through Ivory International Properties,” said an official.
It is alleged that the company mortgaged the said properties to get a loan and Ms. Patel had signed as a co-borrower in the mortgage loan application form. She failed to explain the source of funds for the acquisition of these assets in the United States and the United Kingdom, the agency said.
“The funds to acquire these overseas properties have been illegally transferred by violating Sections 3(a) and 3(b) of FEMA,” said the ED.
Based on the findings, the agency ordered the seizure of assets in India having value equivalent to that of the undisclosed assets held abroad.
Following allegations that Ms. Patel had illegally amassed properties in other countries, searches were conducted on her residential and office premises and that of her associate, “which resulted in seizure of incriminating documents about the illegal acquisition...”.
