Saifee trust buys Dawood's property in Mumbai for Rs 3.51 cr

A property belonging to fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim here 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 yesterday, a spokesperson of the trust said today.

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 1,91,43,000 and had won the public auction. I did not participate in the e-bidding, where the SBUT made a higher bid," Bharadwaj told PTI.

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

According to a 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 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."