Fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's six ancestral land parcels located in the coastal town of Ratnagiri at Konkan went under the hammer in an e-auction held on Tuesday.
Two properties in the city belonging to late gangster Iqbal Mirchi, a Dawood aide, remained unsold. The properties –501 and 502, at Milton Apartments on Juhu Tara Road in Santacruz (West)– were up for sale for the second time, but did not find any takers. As per the society records, the area of both these flats is 1,245 square feet. After the government had confiscated these two flats, Heena Kauser, wife of Mirchi, fought a legal battle in the Supreme Court. The bidders may have found the properties expensive, sources said.
The auction was held by the Ministry of Finance under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA). The SAFEMA Act provides for the forfeiture of ‘illegally acquired properties’ of smugglers and foreign exchange manipulators and their relatives.
A total four properties were purchased by the Delhi-based SC lawyer Bhupendra Bharadwaj. The properties, survey number 150 (20 gunthas), 151 (27 gunthas), 152 (29.30 gunthas) and 155 (18 gunthas) were collectively sold for Rs 7.18 lakh. They had a base price of Rs 1.52lakh, 2.05 lakh, 2.23 lakh and 1.38 lakh, respectively.
Among those auctioned was 27 gunthas of land on which two dilapidated bungalows stand on survey number 181. The property was sold for Rs 11.20 lakh for which the base price was Rs. 5.35 lakh. The other land parcel, spread across 24.90 gunthas, located at Mumbake village in Khed taluka, was sold for Rs 4.30 lakh and had a reserve price of Rs 1.89 lakh. Both the properties were purchased by Delhi-based lawyer Ajay Shrivastav.
A property located at survey number 81 was not sold due to a last minute technical glitch. The property is spread across 30 gunthas of land located at Lote in Khed. The base price of the land is Rs. 61.48 lakh.
A flat of Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar was auctioned for Rs 1.80 crore in April last year. The flat was sold after Parkar’s relatives failed to prove that the property was bought from the money acquired through legal sources, officials said. The flat was attached after a SC’s order to confiscate seven properties of Ibrahim, a key accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, in Nagpada.
Similarly, in August 2018, Ibrahim’s ancestral property, Amina Mansion also known as Masulla building, at Pakmodia street in Bhendi Bazaar went under the hammer. The property, which was put up for auction, was sold to the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) for Rs 3. 51 crore. The property was jointly owned by Dawood, his mother Aminabai and his sister Haseena.
