Three properties belonging to fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim were sold to the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) for over Rs 11 crore at an auction in Mumbai today.
A Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA) official has confirmed to India Today that the three properties, which also included a restaurant in Bhendi Bazar, were sold to the SBUT at the auction at the Indian Merchant Chamber office.
WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:
- The Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) had made the highest bid for the three sealed properties of the fugitive don.
- Officials said that the Rounaq Afroz restaurant, also known as Delhi Zaika, was sold for Rs 4.53 crore. A second property in Damarwala was sold for Rs 3.53 crore while Shabnam Guest House fetched a price of Rs 3.52 crore.
- “Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust has won the auction for three properties of Dawood Ibrahim. The trust won the auction for Shabnam Guest House, six flats in Damarwala building and a restaurant Rounaq Afroz,” a SBUT spokesperson said.
- “The three properties fall under our ongoing Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project. These buildings are in dilapidated condition and unfit for living. Therefore to ensure safety of the families living in these buildings and to carry on with redevelopment project, we participated in the bidding and acquired these properties,” the spokesperson said.
- After Dawood fled India in the 1990s, properties belonging to him and his associates were seized under the provisions of Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, also known as SAFEMA.
- The authorities decided to auction these properties in a phased manner. However, past auctions of the gangster’s properties drew a cold response from bidders, apparently due to fear factor.
- Hardline Hindu leader Swami Chakrapani had successfully bid for Dawood’s green Hyundai Accent car for Rs 32,000 in 2015 and later burnt it at Indirapuram on the outskirts of Delhi.
- Chakrapani had earlier said he will acquire Rounaq Afroz and build a public toilet there. “After acquiring Hotel Afroz in the bidding, I will build a plush toilet there for public use.
- This toilet will be elegant and open to all free of cost. By turning the gangster’s property into a toilet, I want to send the message: see how terrorism ends!”
- Chakrapani had planned to get the public toilet inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis under the BJP’s Swachh Bharat Mission.
However, Chakrapani’s plan to build a toilet where Hotel Afroz now stands, had not gone down well with former journalist S Balakrishnan, who despite winning the bid for it in 2015, could not arrange money for it. Balakrishnan, through his NGO, Desh Seva Samiti, had successfully bid for the eatery, and even paid the earnest money of Rs 30 lakh, but failed to deposit Rs 4.28 crore in stipulated time.
