Mumbai, Oct 14: Municipal Commissioner Karun Shrivastav today denied that the ice factory land adjacent to Sara-Sahara shopping complex, on which the underworld was allegedly constructing a shopping plaza, belonged to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). "The land was sold by BMC way back in 1940 and we do not know who are the present owners", he told reporters here today.
The 850 square metre land belongs to the Central Ice and Cold Storage Company and Mumbai police claim that it was sold to people close to Dawood Ibrahim some years ago. A shopping complex on the lines of Sara-Sahara complexes is coming up on this land, police sources said.
Shrivastav said that BMC has already served a stop-work notice to the construction on ice factory land and added he has requested the police to furnish information about all such illegal construction works in the city so that they can be stopped.
Mumbai police realised the interest of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Mumbai real estate when they interrogated his brother Iqbal Kaskar on his deportation from Dubai. It was Iqbal who told police about the Sara-Sahara complexes which was allegedly funded by the don, police sources said.
Bureau Report