Mumbai: An Agra resident Hemant Jain successfully bid for a property owned by globally-designated terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in Nagpada 23 years ago when Jain was only 23-year-old. The shop located on Jairaj Bhai Street measures only 144-square-foot in a congested area.
Nevertheless, Jain decided to bid for it since no one was coming forward to take part in the auction of the shop by the income-tax department. His aim was to defy Dawood, who is holed up in Pakistan.
Jain bid Rs 2 lakhs and won the auction. He promptly paid the money to the Central government. Despite he has not got possession of the shop where a lathe operator is running his business now.
Jain was apparently informed that central-government properties cannot be transferred and that there was a ban to that effect. He told a media house on Tuesday that he made several inquiries and found that there was no such ban. In any case, the property would not have been auctioned if cannot be transferred. In 2017 the relevant file went missing.
He wrote several letters to the Prime Minister's Office when Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh were in office and later wrote to the Narendra Modi government, but in vain.
Jain was then asked to pay stamp duty on the basis of the existing market value, which had risen to Rs 23 lakh. Finally, on Dec 19, 2024, the property was registered in his name.
Now the big question is when Jain will get possession of the shop. He has been reportedly warned by the authorities not to insist on possession in the interest of his own safety. But Jain is determined to take possession.
The shop was seized as part of government's crackdown on Dawood Ibrahim's empire and was among many other assets attached under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA).
