Antilia, the lavish mansion home of Asia's richest man Mukes
Antilia, the lavish mansion home of Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani, and his wife Nita Ambani, is one of the most expensive private residences in the world, valued at a whopping Rs 15000 crore (around USD 1.74 billion). But the land upon which Antilia stands today originally belonged to an orphanage built by a wealthy businessman, Sir Fazalbhoy Currimbhoy Ebrahim, in 1895 for orphans.
According to a recent affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court, Mukesh Ambani's lavish 27-storey mansion was built on land that belonged to an orphanage, which was sold 'illegally' in 2005. The affidavit submitted by Sandesh C Tadvi, joint secretary to the Minority Development Department and acting CEO of Maharashtra State Board of Wakfs, states that a 'mischief' was committed by the then chairman and CEO, when he ratified the sale of the orphanage land to Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on March 9, 2005, Livelaw reported.
Earlier, a Bombay High Court bench headed by Chief Justice Manjula Chellur, in an order dated July 21, 2017, had directed the State Board of Wakfs to clarify their stance on challenging the Charity commissioner's permission on the sale of the orphanage land.
As per lawsuits challenging the sale of the orphanage land to Mukesh Ambani, the Reliance Industries Chairman reportedly paid a mere $2.5 million for the land against a market value of $18 million.
The 1.120 acre land, located on the posh Altamount Road in Mumbai's Cumbala Hill, originally housed the Currimbhoy Ebrahim Yateemkhana -- an orphanage built by a wealthy businessman Sir Fazalbhoy Currimbhoy Ebrahim in 1895 for orphans from the Khoja Muslim community, to which Currimbhoy belonged to.
The orphanage was run by the Wakf board, and in 2002, the board received permission to sell it to Mukesh Ambani's Muffin-Antilia Commercial Private Limited, who reportedly paid $2.5 million for the land against a market value of $18 million. Later, the Ambanis sought permission to build their grand home on the property, the building plan was approved by the BMC in 2003, and construction began in 2006.
The Currimbhoy Khoja Trust, which was created to work for the upliftment of underprivileged children, had filed an application with the Charity Commissioner, seeking permission to sell the orphanage land to Mukesh Ambani. The permission was granted on August 27, 2002, and, almost a month after the Trust had sold the 4,532 sqm land to Ambani's Antilia Commercial Private Limited in July 2002 for Rs 210.5 million against a then market value price Rs 1.5 billion.
However, the then Maharashtra State Board of Wakfs deemed the transaction illegal and sent a notice to Antilia Commercial citing violation of Section 52 of the Wakf Act, 1995, which deals with the recovery of Wakf property transferred in contravention of Section 51 that bars the sale of any immovable Wakf property without the sanction of the Wakf Board.
The notice was challenged before a Wakf Tribunal on April 22, 2004, and the CEO of the State Board of Wakfs settled the issue with the Trust during the suit, and the agreement was reached that the trustees would accept that the land had indeed been Wakf property. The tribunal ruled that an annual contribution be paid to the Wakf Board, and the trustees subsequently deposited Rs 16 lakh, as per Section 72 of Waqf Act, 1995,
Notably, the trust had stated that the land on which Antilia stand today, was not a Wakf property, but later retracted their claim.
In a recent statement AIMIM leader and Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi, claimed the land on which Ambani's Antilia was built, was only meant to be used for charitable purposes, however, the Trust violated that mandate by selling the estate to Mukesh Ambani.
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