Revision as of 17:53, 26 August 2015

Post 1993 Mumbai serial blasts

A long standing rivalry between Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India

Dawood Ibrahim's businesses; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, August 26, 2015

Hindi-Urdu films made about Dawood Ibrahim; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, August 26, 2015

The Times of India, Jul 04 2015

Raj Shekhar

Govt blocked don's bid to come back, Chhota Shakeel reveals

Dawood Ibrahim and his deputy and most trusted aide Chhota Shakeel do not wish to return to India anymore. According to Shakeel, the Indian government turned down their proposal to return after the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, and now they are reluctant to come back. “When we wanted to come back after 1993, you people, your government didn't allow.Bhai had himself spoken that time to Ram Jethmalani, that too in London... baat ho gayi thi... But your ministry... that (LK) Advani played the game,“ Shakeel told TOI in an exclusive interview over phone from Karachi.

Shakeel opened up on a number of issues, including the bid he recently masterminded on rival Chhota Rajan which was exclusively reported by TOI on Wednesday , IPL match-fixing and his desire to continue doing “business“ in India.

He, however, got agitated when asked about information given by intelligence sources that Dawood was to be bumped off on September 16 last year when he was on his way to attend Shakeel's daughter Zoya's wedding in Karachi. Reliable accounts suggest that those interested in killing Dawood had come close to breaching the security cordon that the fugitive don has erected around himself.

This reporter had barely broached the issue that Shak eel snapped, “Who tells you all this? I have no idea. Ask what I will answer, not what I won't. These are fancies which will never turn true.(Sawal woh karo jiska jawab mai doon aapko, woh na karo jiska jawab nahin doon. Aaj tak jitni bhi aisi information aayi hai... agencies bhi jaanti hai, khayaali pulao hai, sapne dekhte hain, inka sap na kabhi poora nahi hoga).“

Shakeel accused Indian agencies of discriminating between gangs, and asked why they , or the government, had never talked about bringing back Chhota Rajan.“When agencies can hear me plotting against him (Rajan) and know where he is, why don't they get him picked up? Has he not killed people? Is he not a criminal?“ he asked.

He mocked Indian authorities for periodic declarations of their desire to bring Dawood and his aides back and make them face the law.“Every time a new government comes, they make the first statement about us. Usko leke aayenge... ghus ke laayenge... Kya halwa hai? Bakri ka bachcha samajh ke rakha hai kya? “ he said.

Shakeel confirmed that he had reached Newcastle in Australia to eliminate Rajan.“He ran away like a mouse,“ Shakeel said.

Rejection of the offer to surrender by Maharashtra government

The Times of India, Jul 04 2015

Chhota Shakeel and Dawood Ibrahim had offered to surrender in the late 90s to Indian authorities and face trial in the cases pending against him but the then Sharad Pawar government in Maharashtra had rejected it, renowned lawyer Ram Jethmalani said.

Shakeel had contacted him in London with the offer, provided he was assured that police would not torture the duo, Jethmalani said. “I don't know how he got to know that I was in London. But he contacted me and said he and Dawood were prepared to surrender to Indian authorities. He wanted an assurance from the government that they would be kept in house arrest during the trial,“ Jethmalani told TOI.

India planned secret operation to kill Dawood

The Times of India, Aug 25 2015

 Some Mumbai Cops Disrupted Intel Agency's Move: Former Union Home Secy In a significant disclosure, former Union home secretary R K Singh has said that Indian intelligence agencies had to abort a covert operation they had planned to take out fugitive underworld don and mastermind of Mumbai serial blasts Dawood Ibrahim. In an interview to a news channel, Singh said the plan, prepared by national security advisor A K Doval when he headed the Intelligence Bureau under the Vajpayee government, involved using members of the rival underworld gang led by Chhota Rajan to target Dawood when he was set to travel to Dubai for the wedding of his daughter in 2005. However, the plot was disrupted by a posse of Mumbai cops who mysteriously emerged in Delhi to arrest Rajan's accomplice Vicky Mal hotra and Fareed Tanasha.

Malhotra and Tanasha had travelled to Delhi to work out details of the plan.

The claim has shone fresh spotlight on Dawood's links with sections of Mumbai cops, one of the factors why he came to be known as the “uncrowned king“ of the city. It has rekindled suspicions about the manner in which Mumbai cops landed in New Delhi to enlist the help of Delhi Police ostensibly to execute arrest warrants pending against members of Chhota Rajan gang.

The claim is significant also because of the timing: it comes at a time when evidence has emerged that Doval's interest in the leader of the notorious crime syndicate may not have waned even after a decade he spent outside the government follow ing his superannuation.

Last week, Indian agencies responded to claims of Pakistani officials here that they had got dossiers showing complicity of Indian agencies in Baluchistan insurgency by releasing a fresh photograph of the ageing don. So far, Indian agencies have used an old photograph -one which was taken in 1993 -in all the dossiers submitted to Pakistan to claim that the fugitive was being sheltered by the hostile neighbour, and to demand his return. The image of the ageing don with a receding hairline showed that Indian agencies have been tracking him with considerable success.

The dossier which Doval had planned to submit to his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz had the latter not cried off from his engagement in Delhi, included the will that Dawood has prepared, bequeathing his property to his wife Mehzabeen, as well as the precise coordinates of the house Dawood bought next to a hospital in Karachi.

Dawood's infiltration of Mumbai Police has been part of the lore that has developed around him. A few years ago, Wikileaks disclosed that an inspector with Mumbai Police had to be cashiered because of his links with the don.