A man hailing from Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh has bought mafia don Dawood Ibrahim’s Mumbai shop. But it took 23 years of legal and bureaucratic hurdles for Hemant Jain (57) to own the property, reports said.Jain purchased the property, after he read in a newspaper that Dawood’s properties weren’t attracting buyers, in September 2001 during an auction conducted by the income tax department, paying Rs 2 lakh for the 144-square-foot shop located at Jayraj Bhai street in Nagpada area, reports added.According to him, the current market value of the property exceeds Rs 23 lakh.A TOI report said that after Jain purchased the property officials misled him claiming a ban on transferring Centre-owned properties. It took some time for him to realise that no such ban existed.“I wrote dozens of letters to the Prime Minister’s Office and received occasional replies, but the registration could not be completed. The main reason for the delay was that the original files went missing from the Income Tax Department,” Jain explained, according to India Today.Jain had to file a case in a Mumbai court and argue that since he had purchased the property at the auction, its registration should rightfully be in his name. Following the court’s instructions, the registration was finally completed on December 19, 2024, after he paid Rs 1.5 lakh in stamp duties and penalties.Despite this legal victory, India Today added that Jain’s troubles persist. The shop has been occupied by alleged henchmen of Dawood for years, and they are not ready to vacate. Hemant is now seeking their removal to take possession of the property. The shop was among the many assets seized under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA), part of the govt’s crackdown on Dawood’s empire.
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