Fear of Dawood grips government too Two years after he bought property that once belonged to the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, Piyush Jain finds formidable road blocks created not by the mafia but the state authorities, despite the intervention from the prime minister’s office Arnab Pratim Dutta New Delhi Electronic trader Piyush Jain threw caution to the wind when he paid up Rs 2 lakh to bid for a small engineering unit once owned by Dawood Ibhrahim Kaskar. But trouble did not come from expected quarters. Ever since he made the bid, the bureaucrats just can’t seem to get his file cleared. Jain claims that officers of the Income Tax (I-T) department and the Department of Land Records, Mumbai, are not transferring the property as they fear reprisal from the underworld don who still controls his operations in Mumbai. A member of the erstwhile Jai Prakash Janata Dal who joined the Samata Party last month, he managed to get the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to put in a word for him. However, even this has failed to speed up things. “They are not letting me take over the property. They fear a backlash from the underworld. In fact, I-T officers have asked me to give up my claim to the property,” said Jain. Instead of encouraging buyers, the state government seems to have scared them off. The Maharashtra government set up a special panel only two weeks ago to look at the possibility of the state taking over the flats and buildings that earlier belong to Dawood since private buyers had not come forth in the several attempts they made to try and auction the properties. If this is what Jain is going through, why would anyone take the trouble? Piyush Jain and his brother Hemant Jain, bought the Umera Engineering Works in Mumbai in September 2001 at a public auction. Jain paid the earnest money of Rs 2 lakh and he was awarded the bid. A week later, he went to the Bombay Metropolitan Court and gave an undertaking that he had no criminal record. On December 3, 2001, a former tax recovery officer with the I-T department at Mumbai, PV Nambiar, wrote to Jain saying the unit had been transferred to him and his brother. But two and half years later, Jain is still running from pillar to post trying to prove that the property legally belongs to him. Even after the intervention of the PMO in April, it took the I-T department two months to intimate the Land Records department, Mumbai, to register the property under his name. And when it did, there was a problem with the address which took the department three months to rectify. And on September 22, 2003 — more than two years after Piyush Jain bought the property — an IT officer wrote to the Land Records office asking them to record the property in their name. However, there were more problems. The I-T authorities made some deletions in process of filing Piyush Jain’s property papers. In the letter, it just stated the name of the property, its address, coverage area and the owners of the property but did not say whether the land on which the property stood was also bought by Jain. Now the Mumbai Land Records office refuses to register the property in the name of Piyush Jain on the grounds that the land on which the property stands does not belong to him. However, both the I-T department and Land Records office wants to wash their hands of the case. The I-T officer handling the case, SC Meena, refused to acknowledge any impropriety on his part. “The error in filing the address is just a typographical mistake and we are cooperating fully with Piyush Jain in this case. We are ready to give him whatever documents he wants, to ensure that the property is transferred to his name,” Meena told Tehelka. Even after repeated attempts, Mumbai’s district collector Pradeep Vyas could not be contacted. Instead his office directed us to S Chandolkar, a land records officer. Chandolkar told Tehelka that the department has not been able to help Jain because the I-T department has not specifically mentioned whether the property was sold along with the land. “The property will fall under the land records department only if the I-T department notifies us that Jain purchased the property along with the land,” Chandolkar said. Jain, who is already in consultation with his lawyers, has given the I-T authorities and the Land Records department a deadline of March 28, after which he has threatened to take legal action against the two government bodies. Dawood’s assets were attached after the Mumbai bomb blasts and several attempts at auctioning prime property has not brought forth many buyers. The Jains who have come forth — apart from Ajay Srivastava, another buyer — are still waging a battle.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 14:27:57 +0000
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