Six properties of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim auctioned

Six out of the seven land parcels of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim at his ancestral village in Ratnagiri's Khed were sold in an auction held on November 10, sources told Moneycontrol.

The auction was held by authorities under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA), they said.

His ancestral home went for more than Rs 11 lakh. A land plot in Lote village in Ratnagiri district, however, remained unsold and will go on the block again, sources said.

An apartment owned by Dawood's close aide Iqbal Mirchi remained unsold. “There were no takers,” the source said.

The auction was conducted over video conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the source said.

Delhi-based lawyer Ajay Shrivastav purchased the Ibrahim Mansion, the ancestral property of the underworld don in Mumbke village of Khed taluka, for Rs 11.20 lakh, the source said, adding, the 25 'gunthas' of land, which was in the name of Dawood's mother Amin Bi and late sister Hasina Parkar, were also purchased by him for Rs 4.30 lakh.

Advocate Bhupendra Bharadwaj successfully bid for four other properties, the source 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 had told Moneycontrol.

“The reserve price is arrived at 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 had said.

This was 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.

The properties to be auctioned in Mumbake village taluka, Khed included 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 included 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, were also part of the list of properties. The reserve price of these units is Rs 3,45,63,000.

In April 2019, SAFEMA officials 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.