Mumbai court rejects claim over Dawood Ibrahim’s benami property

Mumbai city civil court dismissed a suit filed by Ahmed Vazir Parkar claiming ownership of Parkar Chamber building in Nagpada — a property listed by law enforcement agencies as benami property held by fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.

Mumbai city civil court dismissed a suit filed by Ahmed Vazir Parkar claiming ownership of Parkar Chamber building in Nagpada — a property listed by law enforcement agencies as benami property held by fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, the mastermind behind the March 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.

Fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. (HT FILE)

The building was attached by the income tax (I-T) department in December 1996 to recover tax dues to the tune of ₹40.51 crore. The demand was raised by the department for assessment year 1990-1991. It claimed that the property was one of the benami properties owned by Dawood.

According to central agencies such as the I-T department and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Dawood had acquired 23 properties Mumbai in the name of his family members, relatives and associates, who did not have any independent source of income.

“It was alleged that Dawood had acquired the suit property (Parkar Chamber) as a benami property in the name of his brother-in-law Ibrahim Parkar, who ran a tea stall and did not have the financial capacity to purchase the suit property,” the agencies claimed while contesting Ahmed’s claim.

Ahmed had, however, raised an objection before the I-T department claiming the property was owned by his family and that they had nothing to do with Dawood or his family. According to documents furnished by him, he was the only son of his parents and had inherited the property from them. However, his claims were rejected by I-T department.

Meanwhile, in 2000, Dawood was declared as a proclaimed offender for his involvement in 1993 serial bomb blasts. The government had pointed out that in 2001 the property was added in the list of Dawood’s benami properties and was set to be auctioned.

Before the auction could take place, Ahmed approached the city civil court in April 2001, relying upon documents related to transfer of rights in the property from 1937 onwards, whereby the said property was given on lease to one Abdulla Burhan for 999 years by the Municipal Corporation of the City of Bombay.

It was claimed that the property was later transferred to Sahabzadi Anwar Jehan Begum, who transferred it to Haji Vazir Mahommed Parkar in 1951. This is how, the plaintiff claimed, the property came to be owned by his family.

However, the government pointed out that he had not showed any income from the suit property in his income tax returns for assessment years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001.

The court, after going through the records, observed that there was no evidence that Ahmed’s family owned the property. In fact, after perusal of the documents produced by Ahmed, the court noted that the property was given on lease as there was no document to show that it was sold or the deed of conveyance for transfer of ownership. The court noted that the document only showed transfer of leasehold rights.