Keeping the pressure on underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, the Centre has decided to rent out all D-company properties, seized by Income Tax in Mumbai and Indore, to government agencies, preferably state police organisations and para-military forces.Finance Ministry sources said the decision to turn Dawood’s properties into government office space was taken at a high level meeting on February 5, chaired by then Home Secretary N Gopalaswami.The meeting was attended by Special Director (Intelligence Bureau) Ajit Doval, Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman P L Singh, CBI additional director Vijay Shankar, FEMA chief and Internal Security officials.It’s learnt that the proposal to rent out the properties to government agencies was mooted by the CBDT chairman because no one, other than D-company frontmen, was bidding at auctions organised by Income Tax. The proposal was floated at a preliminary meeting around January 20, attended by CBI Director U S Misra.CBDT sources said the exercise to rent out the buildings had already begun and the tax department was identifying government agencies in need of office space in upmarket South Mumbai.A list of Dawood’s properties in other countries, including South East Asia, too was being prepared.Sources said Dawood, who was designated a global terrorist by US and is still in Pakistan, no longer travels to earlier safe havens in the UAE. In fact, he skipped a D-company wedding in the UAE earlier this year.There’s word that some of Dawood’s properties in Singapore have already been identified and New Delhi plans to take it up at a bilateral level once these claims are verified.
