Trust gets Amina Mansion, declared unsafe for living, on Pakmodia Street, will include it in its Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project
Amina Mansion on Pakmodia Street. Pic/Bipin Kokate
One more property belonging to fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim — Masulla Building, which is also known as Amina Mansion — on Pakmodia Street was sold to the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) for Rs 3.51 crore yesterday in an auction held at the Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan.
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The auction was held
by SAFEMA, the competent authority, under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Properties) Act, 1976.
The bidding game
There were three bidders for the property — SBUT, which bid in all three processes (tender, sealed envelope and auction), Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha and advocate Bhupendra Bharadwaj. Though Bharadwaj had the highest bid of Rs 1.91 crore in the open auction, SBUT submitted a bid of Rs 3.51 crore in a sealed envelope and got the building.
The Supreme Court, in April, had directed the Centre to seize Dawood's properties. The bench headed by Justice R K Agrawal had dismissed the plea filed by the gangster's mother Amina Bi Kaskar and sister Haseena Parkar challenging the decision of the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies to attach properties owned by them in Mumbai as "proceeds of crime".
An senior SAFEMA official confirmed the sale of Amina Mansion, which was in his mother's name.
SBUT confirms
In a release, an SBUT spokesperson said, "The Masulla Building has been declared unfit for living and poses a serious risk to the lives of tenants and pedestrians. Therefore, we participated in the auction and acquired the building to redevelop it as part of our ongoing Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project."
More properties under evaluation
Sources in SAFEMA said there were more properties of Dawood undergoing evaluation and could be auctioned in the next few months. In November 2017, the government had managed to sell three properties in the city for a little over Rs 11 crore in an auction held by SAFEMA. In Thursday's auction, eight other properties of other smugglers in Surat, Valsad, Daman and other areas were also auctioned.
Also read: Mumbai: Cops suspect Dawood Ibrahim's brother is taking over the reins of gang
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