The auction of four properties owned by Dawood Ibrahim concluded today, with two of the land parcels getting no bids and one, which had a reserve price of just Rs 15,000, being sold for an eye-popping Rs 2 crore. Dawood is India’s most wanted terrorist and is believed to be hiding in Karachi.
The four tracts of agricultural land which went under the hammer are located in Mumbake village in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district, and their combined reserve price was just Rs 19.22 lakh. While the two bigger land parcels did not receive any bids, a plot with an area of 1,730 sq m and a reserve price of Rs 1.56 lakh was sold for Rs 3.28 lakh.
The smallest land parcel, which has an area of 170.98 sq m and had a reserve price of Rs 15,000, has been sold for Rs 2.01 crore. This was bought by lawyer Ajay Srivastava, who had earlier purchased three of the underworld don’s properties, including his childhood home in the same village.
Mr Srivastava, who is also a former Shiv Sena leader, had won bids for two shops in Mumbai in 2001 and the home where Dawood was born in 2020. While the shops are stuck in litigation, the lawyer is likely to get the deed for the home soon, and intends to start a Sanatan Pathshala (school) there.
“I had bid for the bungalow in 2020. A Sanatan Dharm Pathshala Trust has been set up and construction of the school will start soon… I had taken part in the auction in 2001 to get the fear of Dawood Ibrahim out of people’s hearts, and a few people have come forward after that,” he had said on Thursday.
Friday’s auction was held under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976.
