Mumbai gangster Dawood Ibrahim's property auction sees mixed response

The bungalow in Ratnagiri where Dawood grew up underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. File pics

The auction for four properties owned by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim took place recently. No bids were received for two properties, while seven individuals placed bids for the other two. The auction included four properties located in Ratnagiri, two of which remained unsold. Surprisingly, one property with an initial reserve price of Rs 15,000 received a winning bid of Rs 2.01 crore from Ajay Shrivastav. The other property, also bought by Shrivastav, sold for Rs 3.28 lakh.

Navi Mumbai resident Bhagwan Chetlani, who also attended the auction but wasn't successful in buying a property, said that he was unaware of the ownership details but decided to participate after reading about the auction. Shrivastav said that he too had no prior knowledge of the property's owner and decided to bid after reading about the auction in the newspaper. He emphasised that he placed the significant bid without knowing the property belonged to Dawood.

"I am a staunch Sanātanī and now I plan to develop schools on both these properties. I will systematically convert them. Earlier, I successfully won Dawood's bungalow/haveli in an auction and have already registered it in the name of a traditional school," said the Delhi-based lawyer who placed the highest bids on the two properties registered in the name of Dawood's mother. The properties held by SAFEMA include details such as the type of land and ownership information.