The Indian Supreme Court on Friday directed the government to take over most-wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim’s properties worth millions in the city of Mumbai, dismissing petitions by his sister Hasina Parkar and mother Amina Bi Kaskar, according to a NDTV report.
The prime properties in Mumbai's Nagpada belonged to Dawood but his mother and sister, both dead, had taken possession of them.
The government sealed the properties in 1988 under a law allowing the takeover of properties of smugglers, foreign exchange manipulators and their relatives.
Dawood's mother and sister had challenged the takeover after the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai in which 257 were killed.
Dawood had fled the country and the departments concerned sought to seize properties belonging to him.
Amina Kaskar and Hasina Parkar had moved the Supreme Court after the tribunal and the Delhi High Court dismissed their challenge to the takeover order in July 1998.
In November 2012, Supreme Court ordered status quo in the case.
The government had claimed Amina and Hasina failed to file valid documents showing legal sources of income to acquire the properties despite several opportunities given to them.
They both reportedly had seven residential properties worth millions in their names which were allegedly acquired with Dawood's illegal wealth.
In November 2017, three of Dawood’s properties in south Mumbai - Hotel Raunaq Afroz- also known as Delhi Zaika, Shabnam Guest House and six rooms in Damarwala building on Pakmodia street were auctioned for Rs 110 million by the Ministry of Finance.
Before this, British authorities seized his assets worth $6.7 billion in the UK.
Dawood Ibrahim is the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. He is listed as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council's IS and al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee, reports bdnews24.
