‘Nobody Scared of Dawood’: 6 Properties of Don Auctioned in Maharashtra

MUMBAI:
At least 6 properties belonging to absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri were auctioned for nearly Rs 23 lakh under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA), an official said on Tuesday.

The successful bidders include lawyer Ajay Shrivastava who bought two properties and Supreme Court advocate Bhupendra Bhardwaj who picked up four assets in the scheduled online, offline and sealed tender auction held here.

The smooth auction held on Tuesday – coming after a similar one last year – indicated that the Pakistan-based fugitive don is no longer a much-dreaded criminal here.

A majority of the properties are small constructions – some in a bad shape – on plots of land, situated in Mumbake village in Khed sub-district of Ratnagiri, from where the Kaskar family hailed.

“We got excellent response for the auction. The six properties at Ratnagiri have been successfully sold. Four bids were won by Bhardwaj and two others by Shrivastava,” a beaming Additional Commissioner, SAFEMA, R.N. D’Souza told media persons post-auction.

According to D’Souza, the bids for two of the properties on the block went much above their reserve prices – Rs 1.89 lakh (sold at Rs 5.35 lakh), and Rs 4.30 lakh (sold for Rs 11.20 lakh) – while the other properties went for the base prices.

One property of the fugitive don originally scheduled to be auctioned, was withdrawn owing to certain technicalities, he added.

However, two flats at Milton Apartments in Mumbai’s Santacruz west, belonging to former Dawood aide Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi, were also put up on auction simultaneously, but despite many enquiries for these prime properties, there were no bids.

Explaining the procedure, D’Souza said that 25 percent of the bid amount must be deposited within a week, another 25 percent within a month, and the balance within one to three months.

After the complete payment is made, the buyer would be issued a confirmation letter by the SAFEMA finalising the deal.

The competent authority under SAFEMA had planned to auction off all 13 seized properties of the fugitive don early this year, but the plans were postponed in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.

In April 2019, the SAFEMA had auctioned a 600 square feet flat at Gordon Hall Apartments in Nagpada owned by the don’s deceased sister Haseena Parkar for Rs 1.80 crore.

After her death in 2014, it was occupied by her brother Iqbal Kaskar, who was arrested by Thane police in 2017 in several extortion cases and is currently in prison.

In 2018, the SAFEMA auctioned another of Dawood’s property in Amina Mansion in south Mumbai which was picked up by the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) for Rs 3.51 crore against the reserve price of Rs 79.50 lakh.

Prior to this in November 2017, the SAFEMA had sold, by auction, six flats in south Mumbai, the Shabnam Guest House and the Raunaq Afroz Restaurant for a total of over Rs 11.50 crore.