Fire in ED’s Mumbai office: papers burnt but crucial documents safe in digital form, says agency

The prima facie reason for the fire appears to be a short circuit on the fourth floor.

The ED’s statement followed speculations in the media that the fire may have damaged documents of many crucial cases the agency is investigating, such as those against many Maharashtra politicians, bank fraud cases involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Chowksi, and Covid scam cases.

The ED said that though an actual damage assessment was still being carried out, a preliminary assessment showed that certain documents and furniture had been burnt in the fire.

“It may be mentioned here that evidentiary documents pertaining to investigation and relied upon documents are invariably stored in the form of digital records as well as stored in an internal centralized record keeping system. With regard to the cases where Prosecution Complaints have been filed, the original records are available with concerned Courts. Therefore, no impediment in conducting investigation or trial is expected,” the agency said.

The offices on the ground and the first floors of the Kaiser-I-Hind building in Ballard Estate remain functional. The part of the office on the fourth floor affected by the fire is now operational at the Old Regional Office in Janmabhoomi Chambers.

Meanwhile, the ED has expedited the procedure for opening independent offices at the earliest at the land at Bandra Kurla Complex that was allocated by the state government.