Mumbai:
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.
The auction was held by the administrators of Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA) and it took place at the India Merchant Chamber in Mumbai today.
The Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) had made the highest bid for the three sealed properties of the fugitive don. According to SAFEMA officials Rounaq Afroz restaurant, also known as Delhi Zaika, was sold for Rs 4.53 crore, Damarwala building was sold for Rs 3.53 crore while Shabnam Guest House fetched a price of Rs 3.52 crore.
''The three properties (Shabnam Guest House, Damarwala building & Hotel Raunaq Afroz) fall under our ongoing Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project. These buildings are in dilapidated condition and unfit for living. Therefore to ensure the safety of the families living in these buildings and to carry on with the redevelopment project, we participated in the bidding and acquired these properties," said a SBUT spokesperson.
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 attempts to sell properties belonging to Dawood by administrators of SAFEMA had failed in 2015 as some of the bidders couldn't manage to pay the amount they had mentioned in the bid.
Swami Chakrapani of Hindu Mahasabha who wanted to buy Hotel Rounak Afroz could not participate in the auction as the demand draft, issued by his association as the earnest money to participate in the auction, couldn't be honoured in stipulated time. Chakrapani had earlier said he will acquire Rounaq Afroz and build a public toilet there.
