Dawood Ibrahim’s properties in Ratnagiri to be auctioned today

The competent authority of the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (Safema) will go ahead with an auction of seven land parcels of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim in his ancestral village in Ratnagiri district in Konkan on Tuesday, officials said.

Two flats of Dawood’s aide Iqbal Mirchi will also be auctioned, officials said. Safema’s competent authority Harigovind Singh will supervise the auction.

Under Safema, the finance ministry had planned to auction all 13 properties of Dawood in the first quarter this year. However, the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown forced them to defer the plan.

A Safema official said that properties were inspected by prospective bidders as per procedure. “All three modes of sale – e-auction, public auction and sealed tenders – would be used,” he said.

Section 68F of Safema empowers the authority to attach properties of family members and relatives of the fugitive. “As the lockdown has adversely affected people across all sections financially, we are not sure what kind of response we would get,” said another official.

In April 2019, Safema officials auctioned a flat measuring 600 sq ft at Gordon Hall Apartments in Nagpada, belonging to Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar, for ₹1.80 crore. Parker died in 2014 and later her brother Iqbal Kaskar had come to stay there. In 2018, Safema auctioned Dawood’s property, Amina Mansion, on Pakmodia Street. The reserved price of the property was ₹79.43 lakh, and it was won by the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) for ₹3.51 crore.

In November 2017, the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) had made the highest bid for the three sealed properties of the fugitive don. The Rounaq Afroz restaurant, also known as Delhi Zaika, was sold for ₹4.53 crore. Six flats in Damarwala building were sold for ₹3.53 crore, while Shabnam Guest House fetched a price of ₹3.52 crore.

The reserve price for the land parcels to be auctioned at Mumbake village taluka, Khed, range from ₹1.38 lakh to ₹2.23 lakh.

Another plot of land with a two-storey bungalow has a reserved price ₹5.35 lakh.

The reserve price for another plot of land with a structure for petrol pump and other buildings is ₹61.48 lakh.

Two flats, 501/502, in Milton Apartments on Juhu Tara Road in Santacruz (West), belonging to the late gangster Iqbal Mirchi, will also be sold