A special court here on Thursdayrejected the bail application of Humayun Merchant, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case involving late gangster Iqbal Mirchi.This was Merchant's second bail application to be rejected by the special PMLA court judge P Rajvaidya.After being denied bail in November, Merchant made another attempt after filing of a charge-sheet by the ED.His lawyer had argued that Merchant, a senior citizen, has been in jail for over 110 days and as the investigation is over, he should be granted bail.However, the court did not accept his submissions and rejected the bail plea.Merchant, said to be an aide of Iqbal Mirchi, a close associate of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested in October last year.He is being probed by the ED in connection with the alleged illegal real estate deals of Mirchi and his family.The ED is probing Mirchi's purchase of three properties of Sir Mohammad Yusuf Trust in Worli area in the metropolis in September 1986 for Rs 6.5 lakh through his Rockside Enterprise.Besides Merchant, the central investigating agency has arrested over five people, including Kapil Wadhawan, the CMD of crisis-hit Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) in this case.
