Finance Ministry to auction 6 Dawood Ibrahim’s properties in Mumbai on November 14

Nearly two years after the futile attempt of the Finance Ministry to auction fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s properties, the ministry is again into action.

On Tuesday, the administrator of the Smugglers & Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act surveyed some of the Dawood's property in Mumbai. The properties will again go under the hammer on November 14.

The development comes after the TADA court, which recently pronounced the judgment against seven convicts in 1993 Bombay blasts case, directed the CBI, to expedite the process of attaching properties of 33 wanted accused including Dawood.

The properties to be auctioned include Damarwala building near Bhendi Bazar where Dawood's younger brother, Iqbal Kaskar, resided till recently. 

The others are Shabnam Guest House on Mohammed Ali Road, a flat in Pearl Harbour building at Mazgaon, tenancy rights of a room in Dadriwala chawl at Saifee Jubilee Street, and a 600 sq metre factory plot in Aurangabad district.

All the Mumbai properties are within a 2 sq km area encompassing Mazgaon, Dongri and Mohammed Ali Road, a stretch that was under the D-company's sway for decades.

In December 2015, the government had appointed a private firm to hold an auction of Dawood’s properties.

That auction included seven properties of Dawood, including four agricultural plots in Daman, Hotel Rounaq Afroz, now known as Delhi Zaika, Tenancy rights on a flat in Mahavir building in Matunga and a car had been put up for auction.

During this auction, Desh Seva Samiti, an NGO placed the highest bid of Rs 4.28 crore for the Hotel Raounaq Afroz. The NGO had deposited an earnest payment of Rs 30 lakh, but it could not raise the remaining amount, Rs 3.98 crore, within a 30-day period, and lost the chance to buy the property.

This time, SAFEMA has reduced the earnest money deposit. The reserve price of this property is Rs 1.18 crore- the market price of the 45 sq mtr (485 sq ft) property is said to be around Rs 6 crore to Rs 8 crore now.

The base price of some of the properties this time:

1) Damarwala Building, Pakmodia Street, Mumbai

Base Price: 1 Crore, 55 Lakh and 76 Thousands rupees

2) Hotel Raunak Afroz, Pakmodia Street, Mumbai

Base Price: 1 Crore, 18 Lakhs and 63 Thousands rupees

3) Shabnam Guest House

Base Price: 1 Crore, 21 Lakh and 43 Thousands only