The seized assets include property worth around Rs 80 lakh, jewellery worth Rs 41 lakh in addition to foreign-made wrist watches and foreign currency.
The Maharashtra ATS has initiated the process of auctioning off a property which it felt was procured through the selling of drugs. It will be one of the rare cases where property earned through the sale of drugs will be auctioned. Normally such seizures and auctions are only carried out in cases related to economic offences or when gangsters have absconded and are declared fugitives.
After the Maharashtra ATS, during investigation into an offence registered last year, found property and jewellery worth over Rs 1 crore, they wrote to the competent authority under SAFEMA which conducts auctions. The latter has confirmed freezing these assets to auction them off in the future in the absence of any legal challenges earlier this week. In this particular case it was inspector Girish Bane from the Maharashtra ATS who sent a freezing order to SAFEMA office that gave a confirmation order to freeze the assets of the 13 accused persons arrested last year in a narcotics case.
The seized assets include property worth around Rs 80 lakh, jewellery worth Rs 41 lakh in addition to foreign-made wrist watches and foreign currency.
Last year, in a raid by the Vikhroli unit of ATS, they recovered 146.143 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 58.55 crore, Rs 1.55 crore in cash and three vehicles, and 13 persons were arrested.