Delhi lawyer vows to buy Dawood’s properties

A Delhi-based lawyer has promised to buy all the properties of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim if they are put up for auction.  

“If nobody dares to come forward and purchase the benami properties of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, then I vouch that I shall purchase them if they are put up for public auction,” said Ajay Shrivastava, who had bought one of Dawood’s benami properties at Jayraj Bhai Lane in Tardeo in 2001 at Rs2.5 lakh.  

After a long legal battle the small causes court in Mumbai on March 5 ordered Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar to hand over the possession of the property to Shrivastava within three months. 

According to Shrivastava’s legal advisor Viral Shukla, after the 1992 riots, the Income Tax department had initiated an inquiry against Dawood’s properties. As per their assessment order, some of his benami properties were attached, including the one at Tardeo. 

“After the auction, a notice was given to Parkar, stating that I have purchased the said property. I had asked her for the rent and possession of the property, to which she replied that she had no clue about the auction and refused to hand it over. She also refused to consider me as the rightful landlord of the property,” said Shrivastava.    

In 2003, a case was filed in the small causes court. “Since then, I’ve been receiving threat calls from Dawood’s aide Chhota Shakeel to hand over the property documents to Parkar and shut the case. I had filed an FIR in Delhi in this regard,” the lawyer said.

According to him, the court passed the order directing Parkar to vacate the physical possession within three months, pay the legal expenses borne by Shrivastava and she cannot create a third-party interest in the said property.