Ajay Shrivastava, a lawyer from Delhi, bought two pieces of land owned by family members of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in an auction for over ₹2 crore in Mumbai on Friday.

The auction, conducted by the competent authorities under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, included four properties in Ibrahim’s ancestral Mumbake village in Khed tehsil, Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra.

Notably, two properties received no bids, while the other two garnered three and four bids respectively.

The highest bid, amounting to ₹2.01 crore, was placed on land measuring 170.98 square meters (survey no. 617, Hissa No. 13-B) having a with a reserve price of ₹15,440. Another piece of land, survey no. 842 (Hissa no. 13-B), measuring 1730 square meters, fetched a bid of ₹3.28 lakh against a reserve price of ₹1,56,270.

The auction was held at Aayakar Bhavan in south Mumbai, housing the offices of the Income Tax department.

Who bought both the properties?

Ajay Shrivastava bought both pieces of land. Shrivastava had previously acquired another piece of land from the gangster’s family in an earlier auction.

He expressed his intention to establish a Sanatana Dharma School at the newly acquired properties. As per ANI, Shrivastava is a Shiv Sena leader.

He said, “I have purchased the two plots, and I brought the land parcels at such whopping prices as I believe in astrology and the plots survey number matched with my birth date. Also, I own an adjacent plot purchased in the last auction. I want to develop Sanatan Dharma School at the said plots. I didn’t bid for the other two plots as they don’t have proper roads to reach them.”

Shrivastava added that he aimed to convey to the public that Dawood’s influence was no longer prevalent. Anyone who works against the country will face the consequences, leading to the seizure and sale of their properties, which individuals are willing to buy. The lawyer also mentioned his acquisition of the gangster’s industrial unit in Tardeo in 2001, although he is still awaiting possession of the property.

“In 2001, the auction was conducted by the Income Tax Department, but the problem with the department was that they did not offer the possession of the property and I am still fighting for that in the court. The case is pending in high court. In 2020, I took Ibrahim’s bungalow situated in Ratnagiri in the auction and there I founded Sanatan Pathshala in the line of madrassas. Under the trust, I have built an educational institute there and its construction will start soon,” Shrivastava told news agency ANI.