Watch: Minister evades question if Ambani’s Antilia is built on Waqf land
Amid the accusations that one of the aims to amend the Waqf Act is to help PM Modi’s corporate friends, Abdul Sattar, Minister of Minority Development and Aukaf (Maharashtra), refused to respond to a question about the status of Antilia, Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai
[Former Maharashtra Waqf Board CEO Moin Tashildar (L) with Maharahtra Minister Abdul Sattar in a file photo. (Image Moin Tashildar/Facebook)]
Mumbai: Amid the accusations that one of the aims to amend the Waqf Act is to help PM Modi’s corporate friends, Abdul Sattar, Minister of Minority Development and Aukaf (Maharashtra), refused to respond to a question about the status of Antilia, Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai.
In a video which is widely shared amidst the unrest over Narendra Modi government’s plan to amend the Waqf Act 1995 a reporter asked Abdul Sattar about the status of Mukesh Ambani’s residence Antilia.
“Do you believe Antilia is (built on) Waqf land?” the reporter asked the Maharashtra Minister of Minority Development and Auqaf.
The Minister did not respond.
“Do you agree that Antilia is a Waqf Land?” the reporter repeated his question.
The Minister did not respond even now.
“Sattar Saheb… Sattar Saheb…. Do you believe Antilia is a Waqf Land?” the reporter asked for a third time.
Abdul Sattar refused to respond to the question. Instead, he accused the reporter of behaving like a child.
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However, responding to a question if the government of Maharashtra has taken any cognizance of the report submitted by Moin Tashildar, Deputy Secretary to Government of Maharashtra and Former Chief Executive Officer at CEO, Maharashtra State Board of Waqfs, Abdul Sattar said, “I have asked for Moin Tashildar’s report. Whatever action is required will be taken once that report comes to my table.”
To the allegations that there are attempts by the government to change the status of the Waqf Land on which Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani has built his residence, Antilia, Adbul Sattar said, “The government can’t do this. It’s the job of Waqf Board.”
Moin Tashildar Report on Waqf
Moin Tashildar, a deputy secretary rank officer, was in May 2024 replaced as Maharashtra Waqf Board CEO by Juned Syed, a desk officer.
Considered an upright officer, Moin Tashildar during his tenure as Waqf Board CEO, made efforts in pitching for transparency and accountability in the overall affairs of the waqf.
Tashildar is credited with issuing few thousand notices in connection with irregularities detected in the functioning of waqf institutions and immovable assets, apart from registering FIRs in cases involving illegal transfer of waqf properties, according to The Times of India.
According to ETV Bharat, Tashildar has also submitted a report wherein he said the land on which Antilia is built is a Waqf Land. Tashildar in his report also questioned the legality of its sale to Ambani, ETV Bharat said based on the copy of the report in its possession.
Is Antilia a Waqf Land?
Antilia - named after a mythical island in the Atlantic, has been rated as the world's "most outrageously expensive property" by Forbes magazine.
The 27-storey, 400,000-square-foot skyscraper includes six stories of underground parking, three helicopter pads, and reportedly requires a staff of 600 to keep it running. The construction costs for Antilia have been reported at a range of $1 billion to $2 billion.
The land in Mumbai’s upmarket Altamount Road on which Mukesh Ambani built his super luxurious residence, was under the possession of Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Orphanage Trust where the trust used to run an orphanage for 'providing maintenance and education of poor and destitute children belonging to the Khoja community.'
The land was sold to Ambani's company Antilia Commercial Private Limited (ACPL) in 2002, after the orphanage trust sought permission from charity commissioner to do so on August 27, 2002. No permission from the Waqf board was taken.
The then Waqf minister Nawab Malik had opposed the land sale and so did the revenue department of the Government of Maharashtra. A stay order was consequently issued on the sale of the land in 2003.
Also in 2003, the Waqf board initially opposed the deal and filed a PIL in the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the trust. The Supreme Court however dismissed the petition and asked the Waqf board to approach the Bombay High court.
In an affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court in 2017, Sandesh C Tadvi, Joint Secretary, Minority Development Department and acting CEO of State Board of Wakf, has said that ‘mischief’ was committed by the then Chairman and CEO of the State Board of Waqf in passing a resolution dated March 9, 2005, ratifying the sale of land.
The affidavit came over 10 years after Abdul Mateen, a teacher and journalist from Jalna district of Maharashtra, filed a petition against the sale of the Waqf land to Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
Earlier in a letter written to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in 2014, a Mumbai based NGO asked the government to initiate a high-level enquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Ambani and others involved in the case asserting that Reliance Industries Chief Mukesh Ambani grabbed Waqf land by “fraudulent means”.
"In Antilia matter, the CBI should launch FIR against the accused Mukesh Ambani, against the officials of Maharashtra Waqf Board and against the Minister of Waqf from 2003 till date for facilitating the accused Mukesh Ambani to encroach upon a Waqf Property and hatching a conspiracy to grab waqf property by adopting fraud", President of the NGO Muslim-e-Hind, Ameen Idrisi, said.
Cost of the land
In a statement released to the media in 2014, Idrisi said that Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Yateemkhana (Orphanage), a Public Charitable Trust, sold the land allocated for the purpose of education of underprivileged Khoja children to Antilia Commercial Private Limited - alleged to be an entity controlled by Mukesh Ambani in July 2002 for 210.5 million (US$3.4 million). The prevailing market value of the land at the time was at least Rupees 105 Crore Rupees (10.5 billion) which comes to around US$24 million.
Anees Ahmed, former Minister of Minority Development and Aukaf (Maharashtra), however, claimed that the market value of the land is even higher, and accused that it was sold to Ambani on a throwaway price.
“Mukesh Ambani bought the land, which cost more than 500 Crore Rupees, for just 21 Crore Rupees”, Anees Ahmed alleged.
He also said a land donated as waqf is always a waqf land, and cannot be sold or its purpose changed.
Talking on the matter, former Minority Department Minister of Maharashtra, Jitendra Awhad, also reiterated his stand that, “Whether it is Antilia or whatever. Once a Waqf is always a Waqf. It can’t be changed at any cost.”
Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024
The matter of Antilia is again in the limelight ever since the Narendra Modi governmen introduced The Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 on August 08 in the Lok Sabha.
The Bill seeks to make as many as 44 amendments in the existing Waqf Act 1995. Indian Muslims are of a firm belief that "once waqf is always waqf" and that its status can't be changed.
However, besides other things, the Bill also proposes to change the status of the Waqf land under the centre and state possession, and gives sole power to district collectors for the purpose.
After a strong protest by the opposition parties, including some government allies, the Bill has been referred to a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
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