Govt. to auction Dawood Ibrahim properties in Mumbai
UMBAI: The Indian government has taken a decision to sell off several properties belonging to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Government has put up an advertisement auctioning the properties of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim for auction. Two of the five properties that the SAFEMA has listed for auction in the newspaper advertisement belong to Dawood Ibrahim and family.
One of the properties is Mumbai’s Damarwala building (room number 18-20, 25, 26 and 28 have been put up for auction) located at Pakmodia Street and Yakub street. This is the building where Dawood’s brother, Iqbal Kaskar, who has been arrested for extortion, used to live. Dawood’s sister Haseena Parker too owns some flats there.
One property frequented by the underworld don during his Mumbai days, Hotel Raunak Afroz. The hotel in the Bhendi Bazar is infamous for the fact that the fugitive used to hold all his meetings here. The auction of the properties has been scheduled for November 14, and will be held in Churchgate area. The procedure would be through sealer tender and public auction.
Indian investigators had been pursuing Dawood’s assets in the UK and also visited the Midlands in 2015.According to an Enforcement Directorate official, a large chunk of Dawood’s money has been invested in the UK, Dubai, and India. Dawood is also reported to have properties in Dartford and Essex and in central London.
Dawood is on India’s Most Wanted list for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. United Nations documents identify him as an accomplice of al Qaeda while the US Treasury Department declared him a “global terrorist” in 2013. This comes over a week after the Thane police slapped the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on Dawood’s brother Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar. Procuring bail under this act becomes a stringent task. The act has been imposed in connection with an alleged extortion racket. A Thane based builder was allegedly extorted of Rs 30 lakh and four flats.
During investigation following his arrest, Iqbal Kaskar has told the investigators that Dawood will not be able to return to India even if he wishes to as Pakistan’s spy agency ISI would not let him. He had said that Dawood wanted to return to India. In 2015, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani had claimed to have met Dawood Ibrahim in London, where the underworld don had told him that he was willing to return to India.
Jethamalani had said that Dawood was ready to return to India and be placed under house arrest during the trial, as he feared he would be bumped off in jail. Jethamalani had said that Dawood told him that he was not involved in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and wanted a guarantee from Indian authorities for his return that he will not be subjected to third-degree torture by the police during his detention.(With Agency Inputs ).
