India
There were two final bidders
Updated : Aug 09, 2018, 03:33 PM IST
The property of the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who is currently in Pakistan, was sold on Thursday morning to Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) for Rs 3.51 crore.
The Akhil Bharatiya Mahasabha was one of the three bidders out to buy underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s Bhendi Bazaar property. However, Indira Tiwari, the head of the Mahasabha, said that they couldn’t accumulate the initial deposit of Rs 25 lakh, and therefore did not participate in the final bidding.
Earlier, the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha chiarman had said that he wanted to convert the property to a public toilet to send a message: see how terrorism ends.
In all, there were two bidders, given that the Mahasabha pulled out last minute. The other bidder was Bhupendra Bharadwaj, a Delhi-based lawyer. He had won the public auction for which he had bid Rs 1.91 crore, a lakh more than SBUT.
The auction started at 10 am at the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratisthan, Nariman Point, and was held by the Ministry of Finance under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA). The reserve price for the property was Rs 79.43 lakh.
There were a total of 9 properties that were auctioned and of that one belonged to Dawood. A total of 20-25 people and organisations had come ahead for all the nine properties, of which, two were for the Dawood property.
There were total three processes. In the public auction, Bharadwaj won he had bid Rs 1.91 crore, but didn’t participate in the e-tenders. Capitalising on this SBUT bid Rs 3.43 crore. In the final state, the sealed tenders, SBUT Rs 3.51 crore and won the property.
RN D'souza the additional commissioner, SAFEMA, confirmed the details. Meanwhile, SBUT Spokesperson said, "The Masulla building (Amina Mansion) has been declared unfit for living and poses serious risk to the lives of tenants and pedestrians. Therefore, we participated in the auction and acquired the building to redevelop it as a part of our ongoing Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project."
In November last year, SBUT had won the three properties in an auction carried out by SAFEMA. The properties were the Shabnam Guest House, six flats in Damarwala building and restaurant Raunaq Afroz — all located in Bhendi Bzaar and belonging to the underworld don’s family.