Defying a purported threat from Dawood Ibrahim aide Chhota Shakeel, former journalist S Balakrishnan on Wednesday emerged the top bidder at Rs4.28 crore for an eatery “Delhi Zaika”, a 500-sq ft in downtown south Mumbai.
On a day when Dawood’s seven properties, including a car, went under the hammer at an auction held at Hotel Diplomat at Colaba in south Mumbai by a Government-appointed private firm, Balakrishnan who runs NGO ‘Desh Seva Samiti’ emerged the winner in an aggressive bidding that lasted for 90 minutes.
The eatery “Delhi Zaika” was put up for auction at a reserve prise of Rs1.18 crore. Known as Hotel Rounak Afroz, Delhi Zaika located near Dawood’s house in Dambar-wala building in Pakmodia Street where his younger brother Iqbal Kaskar lives.
During the intense bidding for the eatery that ended at the highest price of Rs4.28 crore, Balakrishnan pipped Durhani Trust of Bohra community. The Dawood Bohra trust made the second highest bid of Rs4.27 crore. Talking to mediapersons after winning the bid for Dawood’s eatery, Balakrishnan said, “Durhani Trust was our only competitor. This trust undertakes redevelopment work at Bhendi Bazar. The bidding went on for ninety minutes. Finally, our bid for Rs4.28 crore was accepted in open auction”.
“My NGO wants this property to help underprivileged women and children of Bhendi Bazar to learn computers. This will help the people in society and give a strong message to gangsters like Dawood that Indians are not afraid of him and he can no longer unleash terror in the country,” Balakrishnan said.
Balakrishnan said that the threat he had received from Shakeel last week had not deterred him from participating and winning the bid at the auction. “I received an SMS from Shakeel. He said — You are taking part in the auction. What happened to youIJ I hope you are okay... But I am not to be taken in by this kind of covert threats”.
Queried as to the source of funds for purchasing the eatery, Balakrishnan said, “I will have to mobilise the funds within one month. I intend to raise funds from the common people across the country”.
Balakrishnan said he would name the proposed computer centre after the great patriot and freedom fighter Ashfaqullah Khan “who should be a role model for our children”.
“Somebody sitting in Pakistan cannot dictate terms to this country… Its an insult to our country… We shall not be cowed down by the threats and shall sacrifice whatever we have for the nation,” Balakrishnan said.
A former journalist, Balakrishnan used to write extensively on the underworld. He was also a corporator with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporationn (BMC) nineties. He retired from his job as a journalist nearly a decade ago and set up the NGO Desh Seva Samiti (DSS).
Apart from “Delhi Zaika”, the six other properties that went under the hammer were a Hundia Accent green coloured car (No. MH-04-AX-3676), and the tenancy rights of a 350 sq. feet room in Mahavir Building at Matunga in north-central Mumbai, four small agricultural plots at Daman.
The seven listed properties wre in the custody of the Competent Authority, which seizes properties of those accused in serious cases like narcotics, smuggling, forex offences and then auctions them, under the Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Manipulators Act, 1976 and Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (Prevention) Act.
Curiously enough, All India Hindu Mahasabha President Swami Chakrapani won the bid at Rs 3.32 lakh to purchase Dawood’s Hyundai Accent, which was priced at measly Rs 15,700. This green sedan has been parked at a government society in Ghatkopar for the past four years and is in bad shape with burst tyres and shattered windshield.
The details of other five winning bidders were not immediately known.
Meanwhile, in a clarification issued in the night, Aamir Siddhiqui, owner of Delhi Zaika chain of restaurant said that, "We had taken the place on rent through agent in 2010 and left the place in 2013. The said place allegedly belonging to Dawood is no more being operated as Delhi Zaika. The restaurant was shifted to grant road in 2013. The place was sealed and hence we were ordered to not to remove our name plate or our materials inside the restaurant. We would request to not to use our name as it has been maligning our image".