MUMBAI, June 19 -- The Mumbai unit of Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized assets, including fixed deposits and mutual funds worth around Rs.44 crore, and seized Rs.16.5 lakh in cash during search operations conducted on Tuesday at many places, including at the premises of politician and businessman JM Mhatre. The ED operations are part of its money-laundering investigation into an alleged land fraud in Vahal village in Raigad district. Mhatre and others are accused of acquiring forest land illegally in 2005 by making duplicate entries in mutation records and, subsequently, surrendering the land to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to acquire Rs.52 crore in total as compensation. Mutation records are official documents which record changes in ownership of property. The searches were carried out at multiple locations in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, resulting in the seizure of a large number of incriminating documents, apart from the freezing of financial assets and seizure of cash. The ED's ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) in the case is based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the Panvel police on a complaint by the forest department against Mhatre and a certain S Qadri (now deceased). "The main accused in the case is J M Mhatre. He is a businessman and the director of a firm, J M Mhatre Infra Private Limited," an ED official said. Mhatre, a former Panvel Municipal Council president, was a Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) leader for nearly four decades before he shifted to the BJP recently. Among the freezing and seizures made by the ED in the course of the search operations were bank balances of Rs.23.62 lakh (of Mhatre), fixed deposits of Rs.42.17 crore (of J M Mhatre Infra Private Limited), bank balance of Rs.1.37 crore and mutual funds of Rs.23 lakh (of Qadri), and Rs.16.5 lakh in cash from the latter's family premises. ED's investigation revealed that the mutation entry of the forest land in question was tampered with and the name of the owner, Maharashtra forest department, was replaced with that of the accused illegally. Some parcels of the land were allegedly illegally sold to the NHAI, for which Mhatre received compensation of Rs.42.4 crore while Qadri received Rs.9.69 crore, ED officials said. HT reached out to Mhatre for his comments on ED's action and the allegations against him, but he did not respond despite repeated attempts...