A Delhi-based lawyer paid an an eye-popping ₹ 2 crore for an agricultural plot owned by fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, which had a reserve price of just ₹ 15,000. The lawyer, Ajay Srivastava, paid 1,300 times the reserve price for the 171 sqm plot.
Four plots were put up for bids under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976. They are located in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, and their combined reserve price was just ₹ 19.22 lakh.
There were no bidders for two other plots belonging to Amina Bi, Dawood Ibrahim's mother. Dawood is India's most wanted terrorist and is believed to be hiding in Karachi.
When asked why he quoted such a high price for a plot with a reserve price of Rs 15,440, Srivastava reportedly said "the survey number and the amount add up to a figure in numerology that works in his favour".
Srivastava also bought a 1,730 sqm agricultural land with a reserve price of Rs 1.56 lakh for Rs 3.3 lakh in the auction that done in three modes -- e-auction, public auction and tender
11 properties belonging to Dawood or his kin have already been auctioned in the past few years.
The first auction of Dawood's properties was held in 2000 and no one had turned up to bid, probably because of fear of the 1993 Mumbai blasts mastermind.
Srivastava has also bought bought two shops owned by the terrorist in Mumbai's Nagpada in 2001. He still hasn't got the possession of the shops even though a Mumbai court ruled in his favour in 2011. The order was challenged in the Bombay High Court by the children of Dawood's sister, Haseena Parkar.