Major fire breaks out at ED office in Mumbai, doused in 12 hours

New Delhi, April 29

A major fire broke out at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office at Kaiser-I-Hind building in Ballard Estate of Mumbai. Though no casualties were reported, furniture, computers and documents stored in the office were destroyed in the blaze.

The fire was reported to the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) at 2.31am on April 27. 12 fire engines, seven jumbo tankers and two advanced water tankers were pressed into service and the blaze was doused around 2.10pm.

It has come to the fore that the fire, likely caused by a short circuit, started from the mezzanine linked to the fourth floor, where administrative records are stored. It was confined to the mezzanine and the fourth floor, which houses the offices of several senior officers including the head of its Mumbai zonal unit. Only two security guards were on duty on the ground floor of building when the blaze erupted, the sources added.

The ED’s Mumbai unit has been probing several high-profile money laundering cases in recent years, including the alleged Rs. 122-crore fraud at the New India Co-operative Bank (NICB), the Fairplay app money laundering case, the Rs. 12, 500-crore Punjab National Bank fraud involving diamantaires Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, the Rs. 5,600-crore National Stock Exchange Limited case and the Rs. 9,200-crore Kingfisher Airlines bank fraud case.