Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's seized properties will be auctioned in Mumbai today.
Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind behind Mumbai serial blasts in the past, has been out of India since years. But all of his properties are still in several places in the country. It is those properties, that are going to be put in the auction today.
Three properties in Mumbai and four outside the city, will be auctioned today, at a Mumbai hotel.
Being the properties of a huge terrorist, the public are suspecting threat and unable to come forward to buy those. A few even doubted, saying that, whether the ownership gets transferred through the auction or not.
Dawood left all these properties, several years ago and went out of the country. In all these years, the properties have increased their value, several times. Now the appropriate authorities are selling those, under the Smugglers & Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Properties) Act.
Bidders who bought Dawood Ibrahim properties
Though a large group of public, got threatened to buy Dawood properties, a few of the former journalists and lawyers, dared and bought those.
Among those, Ajay Shrivastava, a Delhi-based lawyer won a bid for an industrial unit of Dawood, who owned it in 2001.
Even after 14 years the lawyer is yet to get the possession of property, as Dawood’s late sister Hasina Parkar had challenged his claim to the property in court.
Speaking on the issue, Srivastava said, “Income Tax department said this, not directly though, that you have to take its possession. We don't have the courage to do so; if we had the courage we would have done it.” However, Srivastava, stayed away from participating in the auction this time.
Former journalist S Balakrishnan, who even runs an NGO, has participated in the auction this time, with the intention of setting up an education Centre for the poor, at one of Dawood’s properties in Pakmodia Street, in Mumbai. The property was sealed in 2013 by the authorities.
Informing that he got a warning message, Balakrishnan said, “I got a message from Chhota Shakeel saying that what you are up to. The intention behind the message was quite clear, but our decision of taking part in the auction is because if we don't participate in the auction then it is a shameful thing for the country.”
By Phani Ch
