India starts process of selling 'enemy properties'

By Anadolu Agency Staff

ANKARA (AA) — India on Monday started the process of selling the properties of people who obtained Pakistani or Chinese citizenship after conflicts with the two countries.

These assets, estimated to be worth more than $15 billion and known as "enemy properties," are managed by the Home Ministry's Custodian of Enemy Property of India (CEPI) department under a law enacted in 1968, three years after a weeks-long war with neighboring Pakistan.

India has fought three wars with Pakistan since 1948 and one with China in 1962.

While some of the moveable properties, mostly gold jewelry and shares, have already been sold by the department, none of the 12,611 immovable properties, including land and buildings, have been sold so far.

Spread across 20 Indian states, more than 10,000 of these properties are in two Indian states alone, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

A statement by the Home Ministry said "enemy properties" valued under 10 million Indian rupees ($121,000) will first be offered to their current occupants.

Properties valued up to 1 billion rupees will either be auctioned off electronically by the Custodian of Enemy Property or be sold by the Indian government at a rate determined by the Enemy Property Disposal Committee, the ministry said.

The government has asked officials of the Directorate General of Defence Estates, which usually looks after the affairs of estates related to the armed forces, to identify the condition and value of these properties before their sale.

A report published by the ministry said the government has so far earned more than 34 billion rupees from the disposal of enemy properties, mostly shares and gold.