Why Did Delhi Lawyer Purchase Dawood Ibrahim’s Properties?

New Delhi: Delhi-based lawyer Ajay Shrivastava, attracted media attention after he acquired two pieces of land owned by the family members of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in an auction for over Rs 2 crore in Mumbai on Friday. The properties were owned by Dawood’s mother, Amina Bi. Apparently, the motive behind winning the bids is much more than just acquiring the land.

“I will establish a school on the property. I have already established ‘Sanatan Dharma Pathshala’ at the bungalow of Dawood Ibrahim which I purchased in 2020,” Srivastava said, responding to his decision to bid significantly above the reserve price for the plot, news agency ANI reported.

“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,” he told ANI.

Further, explaining the reason behind purchasing properties linked to the underworld don, Srivastava said that he wants to stand up to a “terrorist” and this is his way of doing it. He added that through this, he aims to convey that Dawood’s influence is no longer prevalent.

This is not the first time that Shrivastava has purchased properties linked to Dawood Ibrahim. In 2020, he acquired the ancestral home of Dawood in Maharashtra’s Khed for a sum of Rs 11.2 lakh. The auction in which properties linked to Dawood’s kin were placed was conducted by the competent authorities under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act. The auction included four properties in Ibrahim’s ancestral Mumbake village in Khed tehsil of Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, News18 reported.

While the two land pieces were bought by lawyer Ajay Shrivastava, the other two properties received no bids, the report added.