Congress asks government to bring back Dawood as his UK properties are seized

London, Sep 13 (IANS)    The media reported that authorities in the United Kingdom have seized properties belonging to fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, on Wednesday.

Dawood Ibrahim's name appears on the latest UK Treasury Department's "Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets", the Birmingham Mail reported.

Even as India's Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir welcomed the development, opposition Congress welcomed the development but said it was a litmus test for the Indian government to bring him back.

The assets frozen include properties in Midlands. Dawood Ibrahim owns a hotel in Warwickshire and residential properties across the Midlands, according to the report.

The Treasury sanction document lists three recorded addresses of Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan, including 'The White House' in the seaside Clifton area in Karachi. It also lists 21 aliases used by the don. 

The sanctions prohibit the transfer of funds to anyone on the list and freezes any assets the targets may hold in the UK. 

The Indian investigators had been pursuing Dawood's assets in the UK and also visited the Midlands in 2015.

According to an Enforcement Directorate official, a large chunk of Dawood's money has been invested in the UK, Dubai, and India.

Dawood is also reported to have properties in Dartford and Essex and in central London.

The opposition Congress asked the Narendra Modi government to "walk the walk" and bring the fugitive don back to India.

"If Dawood assets have been attached, that is a welcome step, but the litmus test is getting Dawood back and those were the commitments this government made to the people of India in the run-up to the 2014 (Lok Sabha elections) campaign," Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari said.

"We expect them to walk the walk... it is incumbent upon every government to do whatever they possibly can to get Dawood back," he added.

Dawood is on India's Most Wanted list for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. United Nations documents identify him as an accomplice of al Qaeda while the US Treasury Department declared him a "global terrorist" in 2013.