MUMBAI, April 30 -- A special PMLA court has given the Enforcement Directorate (ED) the green signal to confiscate assets worth Rs.700 crore linked to deceased fugitive gangster and drug trafficker Iqbal Mirchi and his family, holding that there is a "strong reason to believe" the properties are proceeds of crime concealed through proxies and layered ownership structures. The order, passed by additional sessions judge R B Rote on Wednesday, comes after the ED moved the special court in March, seeking permission to confiscate 15 properties across Mumbai and Dubai, under the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act. The prime Worli properties are Rabia Mansion, Marium Lodge and Sea View, while the Dubai properties include Hotel Midwest Apartment and several units in Business Bay and DEC Towers. Acting on the ED's plea, the court has permitted the agency to attach the properties listed in its supplementary application. It noted that the accused - Mirchi's wife and sons - declared fugitive economic offenders in 2021, have stayed away from the process. "There is nothing on record to show that the accused have challenged the order. The accused have not appeared," the judge said, adding that there exists a "strong reason to believe that the properties are proceeds of crime or benami property owned by the accused who are already declared as FEO". The order places the asset trail firmly within the ED's existing money laundering case, with the Worli land parcels valued at about Rs.497 crore and Dubai assets at roughly Rs.203 crore, together forming the Rs.700-crore pool the agency has been pursuing for confiscation. It underscores that these properties "have been already attached under the provisions of PMLA", making clear that the present proceedings do not introduce any new assets or revise the valuation. Bringing the properties under the ambit of money laundering, the order records that the Worli properties were acquired in the late 1980s through a partnership firm, with full payment made, but ownership allegedly kept in the name of a charitable trust as a facade. The ED's case, as noted by the court, is that the trust functioned as a "mere cover", misrepresenting facts before authorities to shield the properties from enforcement action. It further recounts how original tenants were gradually replaced with "dummy tenants" linked to associates, allowing control to be consolidated and monetised through redevelopment deals involving hundreds of crores of rupees. Allowing the application, the court directed that the ED "is permitted to attach the properties. by following due procedure of law", effectively moving the already attached Mirchi-linked asset pool into the FEO confiscation track....