MUMBAI, 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 total compensation involved is estimated at around Rs.52 crore, of which Mhatre is alleged to have received Rs.42.4 crore. Mhatre, a former president of the Panvel Municipal Council, was associated with the Peasants and Workers Party for nearly four decades before joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. When contacted, he said he was unaware of the attachment. The ED's Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) stems from an FIR registered by the Panvel police on a complaint by the forest department against Mhatre and S Qadri, who has since died. Investigators said the land in question had been acquired by the Maharashtra government in 1975 under the Maharashtra Private Forests (Acquisition) Act, 1975, following which ownership in the 7/12 extract was recorded in the name of the Forest Department. The ED alleges that the mutation entry was later manipulated to replace the Forest Department's name with that of the accused, enabling illegal transactions and compensation claims. The agency further claimed that the compensation received was used to purchase immovable properties, repay loans and meet business expenses of Mhatre's real estate firms, including JMMIPL and JMM Homes....