Hardline Hindu leader Swami Chakrapani (above), who wants to acquire Dawood Ibrahim's eatery in an auction, said Chhota Shakeel threatened him.

Hardline Hindu leader Swami Chakrapani, who claims to be "against the auctioning of properties", is all set to acquire an eatery owned by gangster Dawood Ibrahim at Bhendi Bazaar in Mumbai and build a public toilet in its place.

Chakrapani is the president of All India Hindu Mahasabha and has received several death threats from Dawood's D-Company.

He said that over the years Indian government has glamourised the gangster and due to his fear, no one ever dared to buy his property. "I have no personal enmity with Dawood but I want to end the fear of terrorists by taking their properties and putting them to good public use. People like Dawood are cowards and no one should fear them," he told Mail Today.

The Centre has invited bids for the eatery, two years after a failed attempt to auction it. Hotel Rounaq Afroz, also known as Delhi Zaika, and five other properties owned by Dawood will go under the hammer on November 14.

Authorities said that they have received an unexpected number of bids through the e-auctioning website and the usual manual process. The successful bids will be announced by the authorities on Tuesday.

The Hindu leader said he will not only buy one of Dawood properties himself but will also help other participants in the purchase. He added that he will give them 10 percent of the total amount of the auctioned property.

This is not the first time that Chakrapani is interested in buying Dawood's property. In a 2015 auction, Chakrapani had bought Dawood's car for `32,000 and later torched it in Ghaziabad in full public view. Swami told Mail Today that he has received a series of threats from gangster Dawood.

He received an SMS that reads, "I play with my targets like video games. Don't be too happy. Wait." He claims the message came from a phone number belonging to Chhota Shakeel, a key aide of Dawood's. He had earlier received threats in the form of telephone calls from an unidentified caller.

Delhi Police Special Cell last year arrested four people for allegedly plotting to kill Chakrapani. Interrogation revealed that they were in constant contact with Shakeel as they planned to eliminate Swami. Home ministry has already provided Swami with Z-category security.

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