MUMBAI: As the Union government is set to auction properties of the fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim on Wednesday, there is a shadow of threat on the process.
The city police are holding an auction once again after 14 years but are not confident of buyers getting possession of the properties.
The properties include an eatery on Pakmodia Street where Dawood lived in 1980s, tenancy right of a room in a building in Matunga and a car gathering dust in the premises of a police station in Ghatkopar. A private firm has been appointed to hold the auction under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Properties) Act, 1976.
The eatery, Delhi Zaika, earlier hotel Rounaq Afroz, is priced at 1.18 crore. It is located at a walkable distance from Dawood’s house in Dambarwala building where his younger brother Iqbal Kaskar lives on the top floor. The eatery known for tikkas has been shut since 2013. Dawood rival Chhota Rajan’s marksman opened fire on Iqbal outside it in 2011.
A Hyundai Accent (MH-04/AX-3676) is priced at 15,700. The green sedan has been parked at a government society in Ghatkopar for four years and is in bad shape with burst tyres and shattered windshield.
The residents of Mahavir Building in Matunga were shocked to know that room number 8 in it was owned by Dawood. The reserve price for the 32.77 sq metre room has been fixed at 50.44 lakh. The building, with 315 tenants, is currently preparing for redevelopment and most occupants have vacated their flats. The developer Satra Properties has already begun demolition work.
Three potential bidders, a Delhi-based lawyer Ajay Shrivastava, city-based former journalist S Balakrishnan and president of Hindu Mahasabha Swami Chakrapani, have shown interest in buying Delhi Zaika. Balakrishnan has filed a complaint with the police saying that Dawood’s right hand man Chhota Shakeel had threatened him against bidding for the property.
Shrivastava has in the past won auction of an industrial unit in Tardeo owned by Dawood in 2001 has not yet got possession of the hotel as Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar challenged the auction in court. The next hearing of this matter is scheduled on December 18.