Mumbai office fire: ED to continue Nirav, Choksi probes using digital records

New Delhi, April 28 (IANS) Key case documents related to fugitive diamantaires Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi are suspected to be among investigation papers damaged in a fire at the ED's office in south Mumbai, even as an official claimed on Monday that no probe will be impacted as digital records are still safe.

The fire brigade took 10 hours to control the blaze that started on the 4th floor of the Mumbai Zonal Office-I, Enforcement Directorate (ED) located at Kaiser-I-Hind building, Ballard Estate, said an official.

The fire was detected around 2.25 a.m. on Sunday by security staff who informed the police and the fire brigade, he said.

Dismissing speculation on setback to probes due to damage to documents in the blaze, an ED official said, “Evidentiary documents pertaining to investigation and relied upon documents are invariably stored in the form of digital records as well as in the internal centralised record keeping system.”

“With regard to the cases where Prosecution Complaints have been filed, the original records are available with courts concerned. Therefore, no impediment in conducting investigation or trial is expected,” he said in a statement.

Sources said the gutted documents could be related to money laundering cases linked to several key cases including those related to Choksi, Nirav Modi, Anil Deshmukh and Chhagan Bhujbal.

Sources said the fire may, to some extent, impact the process of summoning witnesses for questioning in different cases.

An ED official said, “The fire brigade started operations around 3.30 a.m. on Sunday with more than 50 personnel and multiple fire tenders. Prima-facie the reason for the fire appears to be electrical short-circuit in the power boxes on the 4th Floor of the building.”

The offices on the ground and 1st floor of Kaiser-I-Hind building remain functional. Further, the part of the office on the 4th floor affected by the fire, has been shifted immediately and is now operational from Old Regional Office situated at Janambhoomi Chambers, said the official.

In March, the State Government allocated land at Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai to the ED for constructing standalone offices.

“The procedural requirements are being expedited for making independent offices for the ED at the earliest,” he said.

--IANS

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