Apex Court orders Centre to seize Dawood's properties

April 20, 2018

The Apex Court has ordered the Centre to seize underworld don and most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's properties all over India. The bench headed by Justice R K Agrawal rejected a plea filed by the underworld don's family against the attachment of his properties in Mumbai. Last year in November, three of his South Mumbai properties belonging to the escapee don were auctioned for Rs. 11.58 crore. The properties were put on auction by the Ministry of Finance, under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act. The 3 properties were the Shabnam Guest House, Hotel Raunaq Afroz, also known as Delhi Zaika and 6 rooms in Damarwala building. Dawood has also been linked to a series of properties across Britain, according to a media report 2 months ago. UK's 'The Times' reported the 62-year-old fugitive mafia boss, wanted in India as the mastermind of the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai and accused of crimes such as match-fixing and extortion, followed vast property portfolio across the Midlands and south-east in the UK as well as in India, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, the UAE, Morocco and Australia. The UK paper matched details from a file prepared by Indian authorities to records held by the UK's Companies House and the Land Registry, and the Panama Papers, to form a snapshot of the alleged property portfolio.