Saifee trust buys terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's Mumbai property for Rs 3.51 Cr

Mumbai: A property belonging to fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Mumbai has been bought for Rs 3.51 crore by a city-based trust in an auction.

The Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) has bought the property, situated at Bhendi Bazar in South Mumbai for Rs 3.51 crore in the auction held on Thursday, a spokesperson of the trust said.

The auction of the property, "Masulla", a four-storey building, was conducted by the Union Finance Ministry under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA).

There were two bidders for the property, for which the reserve price was Rs 79.43 lakh.

Apart from the SBUT, a Delhi-based lawyer, Bhupendra Bharadwaj, was the other bidder.

"I had bid Rs 19,143,000 and had won the public auction. I did not participate in the e-bidding, where the SBUT made a higher bid," Bharadwaj told news agency PTI.

A three-stage process was involved in the auction of the property - public auction, e-bidding and opening of sealed tenders.

According to an SBUT source, the trust put a bid of Rs 3.43 crore at the e-tendering stage, but in the final process, it sealed the deal for Rs 3.51 crore.

Asked about the auction, the 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 a part of our ongoing Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project."

The project envisages redevelopment of approximately 250 existing buildings and 1,250 shops in the congested but upscale Bhendi Bazar area.

In November last year, the SBUT had bought three properties for Rs 11.58 crore in an auction carried out by the Finance Ministry under SAFEMA.

The properties were Shabnam Guest House, six flats in "Damarwala" building and a restaurant, Raunaq Afroz, all located in Bhendi Bazaar and belonging to Dawood Ibrahim and his family.

Ibrahim, designated by US authorities as a global terrorist, is a key accused in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.