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Delhi land mafia gobbles up 200 enemy properties

A recently released list of the department of revenue shows only a handful people control more than 80% of these properties.

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The capital’s land mafia has been holding on to 200 enemy properties for decades. These are properties evacuated by people who migrated to Pakistan during partition.

A recently released list of the department of revenue shows only a handful people control more than 80% of these properties.

Nearly 78 of the enemy properties are collectively owned by Tahir Ul Aslam, Zahir Ul Aslam, Shahidul Islam, and a woman named Jawahar Sultan. Most of the properties owned by these four persons are shops located in Jama Masjid and central Delhi.

They are followed by Rehman Elahi and Mohammad Yusuf Wasim who own 17 and 15 of these enemy properties respectively. One Fatima Bi owns four of these properties.

The data comes from a letter written by state revenue minister Raj Kumar Chauhan to the top brass of the Delhi government. The letter was sent to lieutenant governor (LG) Tejendra Khanna and chief minister Sheila Dikshit, seeking permission to initiate action against these land-grabbers.

All property left behind by people who migrated to Pakistan are owned by the Mumbai-based Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI), which functions under the Union home ministry. Following the approval of Chauhan’s communique by Khanna, Vinay Kumar, joint secretary in the state revenue department, issued a notification on January 14, banning the registry or mutation of all enemy property on “the list.”

The notification directed that the name CEPI be put in place of the present owners listed against the said property.

The notification effectively means that hundreds of people in the capital living in such enemy properties would lose the title and registry rights to their property.
The trigger to this entire controversy was an alleged land deal of Lok Janshakti Party MLA Shoaib Iqbal. Delhi government sources have made available documents which show plans for construction of a structure in the name of Shoaib’s wife, Huma. Iqbal has called it a “political conspiracy”. The plan was to set up a hotel, Huma Semiramis, on plots 913-921 in Ward No 9, Jama Masjid. Iqbal has denied the allegations and said he will file a defamation suit against the government.
Another set of documents showed property number 921 as “enemy property” with a general power of attorney having been executed in Pakistan in the favour of one Fatema Bi. Under the Enemy Property Act of 1968, it is illegal to conduct transactions in such properties.
Delhi government sources claim the original file relating to plot 921 which was supposed to be acquired by the government before Bi’s family went to court has gone missing. One Ibrahim who identified himself as the eldest son of 84-year-old Fatima Bi denied any transaction. “We have been fighting a case in Delhi high court for the past 18-19 years,” said Ibrahim.
Dinesh Singh of CEPI had visited some of these properties in Delhi on December 12 and met the principal secretary (revenue) on the issue.

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