MUMBAI (TIP): A month after Thane police arrested Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar in a case of alleged extortion, the ministry of finance has issued an auction notice seeking bids for six properties belonging to the underworld don in Mumbai and Aurangabad.This is part of the government’s continuing efforts to curb Ibrahim’s operations in India.

The properties include flat numbers 18-20, 25,26 and 28 of the Damarwala Building, and houses 34-40 on Pakmodia Street and Yakub Street, where Iqbal Kaskar and his late sister Haseena Parkar used to reside. The properties are up for auction at a reserve price of Rs 1.55 crore. Another property listed by the government is the Shabnam Guest House, a double-storied building on Yakub Street with a reserve price of Rs 1.21 crore.

The finance ministry had listed Hotel Raunaq Afroz on Pakmodia Street for auction at a reserved price of Rs 1.18 crore, and put it under the hammer along with seven other properties in 2015. A former journalist raised the highest bid of Rs 4.28 crore, but was unable to deposit the sum in the requisite time frame.

In September, Iqbal was asked to vacate two dilapidated buildings in Mumbai on the grounds that they were illegally acquired. A notice under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act-1976, asking tenants to vacate the premises, was pasted outside the Damarwala building.

Various agencies have tried to auction Ibrahim’s properties three times in nearly two decades (2001, 2013 and 2015), but found no takers. The dearth of buyers largely stems from their fear of the gangster, who is now said to be in Pakistan.

Ibrahim is the main accused in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case in Mumbai. The British government had earlier frozen his UK assets. Source: HT