Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Haseena Parkar’s house back on the block after buyer backs out
MUMBAI: Finding a buyer for a house that once was occupied by Haseena Parkar isn’t an easy task. Now, what has made this job particularly challenging is that the buyer who had bid ₹1.8 crore for the 1BHK flat in a 2019 auction has backed out.
That means the home of gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s late sister will go under the hammer again.
Parkar lived on the first floor of Gordon Hall in south Mumbai till her death in 2014. The office of competent authority and administrator (CAA), an authority under the union finance ministry’s department of revenue, had on April 1, 2019 put the house on auction. The buyer’s identity was kept anonymous.
Explaining the reason behind the bidder’s decision to cancel the deal, CAA Hari Govind Singh said, “When the buyer went to the building after carrying out all the procedure, he was informed by the housing society that certain portions considered part of the apartment were actually encroached upon by the previous occupant [Parkar]. Hence, he approached the authority to scrap the deal.”
Normally, when a successful bidder backs out his money is forfeited by the authority but in this case, the money was refunded as it wasn’t his fault.
The authority has once again put the apartment for auction. The reserve price fixed is ₹1.1 crore, while the earnest money deposit that one has to pay to participate in the bidding is ₹27.6 lakh. The new reserve price is much lower than the one in 2019 when it was settled at ₹1.69 crore. According to sources, there are two reasons for this - one is the earlier auction included the encroachment and secondly, the re-auction is after Covid-19, when the real estate market isn’t doing great.
The property forfeited to the Centre under section 7 of the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976 is for sale on “as is where is” and “as is what is” basis. The flat can be inspected between 11 am and 3 pm on November 22. All the forms of auction shall be held on, and tenders will be opened on December 9, at first floor, Aayakar Bhawan, Churchgate.
Meanwhile, the society of Gordon Hall has informed the authority that there are pending dues, including penalty/interest @21%, to the tune of ₹2.95 lakh. The successful bidder shall have to pay this money.