Two years after he was arrested for the first time for allegedly grabbing a plot of land belonging to the late renowned writer Mulk Raj Anand in the hill station of Khandala, incarcerated Bollywood financer-turned builder Yusuf Lakdawala died at the Arthur Road Central Jail here on Thursday, following complications arising out of cancer that he was suffering from.
Seventy six-year-old Lakdawala— who had been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police in 2019 and later taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) early this year–had been admitted to jail hospital on September 6 but was declared dead immediately after his admission to the state-run J J Hospital.
Confirming Ladawala’s death, DIG Prison Yogesh Desai said: “He (Lakdawala) was suffering from Cancer. On September 6, he was admitted to the prison hospital located inside the Arthur Road Central Jail. After his condition deteriorated, he was rushed to the JJ Hospital. He died on Thursday afternoon. No foul play has been reported”.
Meanwhile, the police have registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR). The cause of death has not been ascertained yet.
The ED had arrested Lakdawala in May this year in a money laundering case registered against him for allegedly forging documents to purchase a land worth Rs 50 crore at Khandala hill station located in Pune district. He was in judicial custody when he died.
In August this year, Lakdawala’s lawyer Abhinav Chandrachud had moved the court seeking bail for his client on medical grounds to enable him to get proper treatment in a hospital. He had submitted Lakdawala’s latest medical report to the court confirming the cancer had spread to other parts of his body.
On their part, Arthur Road jail authorities had in the past taken him to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital for a check-up on the relapse of cancer which had been cured around 12 years ago.
ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar, opposing Lakdawala’s bail, had argued that instead of granting bail, the court should direct the prison authorities to provide the necessary medical treatment to the accused while in custody.
The prison authorities had given an undertaking to the court that they would arrange for all necessary treatment required by Lakdawala.
Lakdawala, who was arrested first by the EOW of the Mumbai police while trying to flee to London from Ahmedabad International Airport. He was granted bail but was rearrested in a money-laundering case registered by the ED in the same case and has been in the Arthur Road Central Jail since then.
The EOW's allegation was that Lakdawala had forged documents to help him grab the huge Khandala plot of Anand, the Indian author English who passed away on September 28, 2004 for allegedly forging signatures on the papers dating back to 1949.
Earlier in 2010, he had allegedly been booked for encroaching upon the properties belonging to the late actress Sadhana at Santacruz in north-west Mumbai, but was later acquitted in the case.