DAWOOD’S EATERY SET TO BECOME A PUBLIC TOILET
Hardline Hindu leader Swami Chakrapani, who successfully bid for a car belonging to Dawood Ibrahim and later burnt it, on Friday said he will acquire an eatery owned by the fugitive gangster at Bhendi Bazaar in Mumbai and build a public toilet there.
The Centre has invited bids for the eatery, two years after a failed attempt to auction it. Hotel Rounaq Afroz, which is also known as Delhi Zaika, besides other properties of Dawood are likely to go under the hammer on November 14.
Chakrapani, the national president of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, was in the city on Friday along with his team to complete the formalities to apply for the bidding process.
Talking to PTI about it, Chakrapani said, “After acquiring Hotel Afroz in the bidding, I will build a plush toilet there for public use. This toilet will be elegant and open to all free of cost. By turning the gangster’s property into a toilet, I want to send the message- see how terrorism ends!”
He said when the toilet gets ready, he will invite Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to inaugurate it under the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission.
Auction for the properties, including the hotel, was held in December 2015. Chakrapani had then bid successfully for Dawood’s green Hyundai Accent car for Rs 32,000. He later burnt it at Indirapuram near Delhi.
Chakrapani also said his Delhi-based advocate friend Ajay Shrivastava, who acquired Dawood’s Nagpada property through bidding, would transfer its ownership to him. He said he would open a dispensary for the poor there which would treat poor patients for free.
The dispensary, he said, will be a tribute to those who lost their lives in terror attacks committed by the gangster.
After Dawood fled India, properties belonging to him and his associates were seized under the provisions of Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, also known as SAFEMA.
The authorities later decided to auction these properties in a phased manner. However, past auctions of the gangster’s properties drew a cold response from bidders, apparently due to fear factor.