India, Feb. 10 -- The Mumbai unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached immovable assets worth Rs.17.74 crore in Navi Mumbai belonging to politician and businessman JM Mhatre and his wife in connection with a money-laundering investigation into an alleged land fraud in Vahal village of Panvel taluka, Raigad district.

The attachment covers three land parcels in Uran and Ulwe, issued through a provisional attachment order last Wednesday, ED officials said on Monday.

According to the agency, Mhatre and others are accused of illegally acquiring forest land in 2005 by allegedly tampering with mutation records, and later surrendering the land to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to claim compensation. The...