SAFEMA & Tiger Memon: How 14 properties belonging to 1993 Bombay blasts accused were handed to govt

What is the law and how is it applied in Memon’s case?

The law

Forfeiture of property is a commonly accepted criminal law remedy, especially in terrorism related cases. Section 126 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, provided for forfeiture of property as one of the penalties apart from jail term and fine for commissioning or waging war against a friendly country.

SAFEMA was enacted in 1976 to crack down on smuggling and manipulation of foreign exchange through smuggling and other activities. It has provisions for forfeiture of illegally acquired properties of persons involved in such activities. The Act states that such persons acquire gains by violation of income tax or other laws and buy properties with such gains, in their own names of those or their relatives, associates and confidantes.

The law casts a wide net on those who own the property on behalf of the accused- from the spouse of the person; brother or sister of the person; brother or sister of the spouse of the person; any lineal ascendant or descendant of the person; any lineal ascendant or descendant of the spouse of the person and spouse or their lineal descendant of any person referred above.

It applies to anyone convicted or detained under the Customs Act, Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 among others.

The law lays down provision for detention of such properties by a competent authority and issuance of notice to the concerned parties to give them an opportunity to explain if the properties are not connected to the alleged illegal activities. If the authority finds the properties to have been acquired through illegal activities, the persons can be directed to pay a fine or the properties can be confiscated and their possession taken over by the central government. SAFEMA also has its own quasi-judicial Appellate Body that acts as a procedural safeguard against orders of confiscation.

Memon’s case

In 1992, the Maharashtra government had initiated proceedings against Ibrahim Abdul Razak Memon alias Tiger Memon, allegedly involved in smuggling activities.

In 1993, the competent authority under SAFEMA ordered the forfeiture of the properties. In 1994, after Memon and other family members were named as accused in the 1993 Bombay blasts case, a designated court under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) ordered that their properties be attached under the anti-terror law. A court receiver was appointed as custodian.

On March 12, 1993, a series of blasts in Bombay (now Mumbai) killed 257 and left 13 injured. The main conspirators in the case were Ibrahim Tiger Memon and international fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

Court order

Earlier this year, the competent authority under SAFEMA, approached the TADA court, stating that in 1993, an order was passed to forfeit the properties and hand them over to the central government. The affected parties had approached the appeal courts but records show that they were disposed of and the properties should be handed over to the central government, it was submitted before the court. It sought that a previous order by the TADA court to attach those properties passed in 1994, therefore should be set aside. A similar order was also passed in August 2024. The special court considered these submissions and set aside the 1994 attachment order. It directed that the properties be handed over to the central government.

List of properties

The properties belonged to 11 members of the Memon family, including Tiger Memon, his younger brother, Yakub Memon, who was hanged to death in the case in 2015. These properties including at the Al Hussaini building in Mahim, where the family resided and had escaped from, before the blasts, and properties in Kurla, Dongri, shops at Manish Market in South Mumbai, among others.

Under the same Act, previously properties belonging to Dawood Ibrahim too have been confiscated and auctioned in the past.