Seven land parcels of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim on the block

Seven land parcels of underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim at his ancestral village in Khed, a town in Ratnagiri district, and Mumbai apartments owned by his aide Iqbal Mirchi are on the block. The date of auction is November 10.

These will be auctioned under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA). Harigovind Singh will supervise the auction.

The auction will be conducted over video conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

Before COVID-19 pandemic stuck, the finance ministry had planned to auction all the 13 properties owned by Dawood, the prime accused in the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, under SAFEMA.

“Besides the COVID pandemic and the lockdown, plans to auction the remaining properties may have had to be deferred as the valuation report may not have come in. Before auctioning a property, we need to take into account the complete valuation report of the property to be auctioned. The remaining properties may be pending for evaluation,” a SAFEMA official told Moneycontrol.

“The reserve price is arrived on the basis of a valuation report submitted by the valuer. The market price in most cases is higher than the reserve price,” the official said.

All properties can be inspected by prospective bidders on November 2. Application for properties should reach the SAFEMA office along with earnest money before 4 pm on November 6.

Three modes of sale – e-auction, public auction and sealed tenders – would be utilised for the auction of these properties.

The official refused to comment on the response expected from the auction of these properties.

This is perhaps the largest auction of Dawood’s properties in Maharashtra.

Section 68F of SAFEMA empowers the authority to attach properties of family members and relatives of the fugitive.

Six properties are located at Mumbake village in Khed taluka of Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra.

The properties to be auctioned in Mumbake village taluka, Khed include Survey number 150 (20 gunthas) with a reserved price: Rs 1.52 lakh; Survey number 151 (27 gunthas) with the reserved price of Rs 2.05 lakh; Survey number 152 (29.30 gunthas) with a reserved price of Rs 2.23 lakh; and Survey number 153 (24.90 gunthas) with a reserved price of Rs 1.89 lakh, as per details published in an advertisement brought out by SAFEMA.

Other properties include Survey number 155 (18 gunthas) with a reserved price of Rs 1.38 lakh; Survey number 181 (27 gunthas)  having two-storey bungalow – house number 178 and 172– with a reserved price of Rs 5.35 lakh; Survey number 81 (30 gunthas) land and structure for petrol pump and other buildings located at Lote, Khed with a reserved price of Rs 61.48 lakh.

Two flats, 501/502, in Milton Apartments on Juhu Tara Road in Santacruz (West), belonging to Iqbal Mirchi, would also be sold on the same date. The reserve price of these units is Rs 3,45,63,000.

In April 2019, SAFEMA officals auctioned a flat measuring 600 sq ft at Gordon Hall Apartments in Nagpada, belonging to Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar, for Rs 1.80 crore.

In 2018, SAFEMA auctioned Dawood’s property, Amina Mansion, on Pakmodia Street. The reserved price of the property was Rs 79.43 lakh, and it was won by the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) for Rs 3.51 crore.

In November 2017 too, the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) had made the highest bid for the three sealed properties of the fugitive. Six flats in Damarwala building were sold for Rs 3.53 crore, while Shabnam Guest House fetched Rs 3.52 crore.

Meanwhile, according to news reports, the Supreme Court on October 15 issued notice to the charity commissioner and stayed redevelopment of a Bhendi Bazaar property that was perhaps the last known address of underworld don Ibrahim in Mumbai. The building called Haji Ismail Haji Habib Musafirkhana was constructed in 1939.

In a related development on October 20, assets worth over Rs 22 crore, including a cinema hall and a hotel in Mumbai, of late gangster Iqbal Mirchi's family have been attached in connection with a money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement.