Six properties of Dawood Ibrahim in Ratnagiri auctioned today

Six properties of underworld don and India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim at his ancestral place Ratnagiri were auctioned by the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Authority (SAFEMA) on Tuesday.

While four of the properties were successfully bid by Delhi-based lawyer Bhupendra Bhardwaj in the virtual auction held today, the other two bids were won by advocate Ajay Srivastava.

"We had an excellent response in the auction. The six properties at Ratnagiri and Goregaon have been sold. While four bids were won by Bhupendra Bharadwaj, two were won by Ajay Shrivastava," SAFEMA Additional Commissioner RN D'Souza told reporters here.

He said the highest bid for two of the properties went from the reserve price of Rs 1.89 lakh and Rs 5.35 lakh to Rs 4.3 lakh and Rs 11.2 lakh respectively. He added that the other properties went for their base prices.

One other property, belonging to Dawood Ibrahim, was however withdrawn from the auction by officials due to some technical reasons.

"We auction in all three modes -- public auction, e-auction and silk tender. But, this being a very peculiar situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, we had to improvise a little. Instead of having a public auction, we conducted a virtual public auction," D'Souza said.

The officials said there were several enquiries for the Mylton apartment, owned by gangster Iqbal Mirchi, but no bids were received for the same.

"As per the procedure, 25 per cent of the bid amount has to be deposited within seven days if the total amount is below Rs 50 lakh, if above 50 lakh, 25 per cent of the bid needs to be deposited within a period of one month. The rest of the amount can be deposited within one month and three months respectively. After the entire payment is made a confirmation letter will be issued communicating the same," he added.