NEW DELHI: Underworld don and erstwhile member of the D-Company, Ejaz Lakdawala, has claimed to Mumbai Police that India’s most-wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim has a large base in Kathmandu, that he uses for pushing Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) into the Indian territory through the porous border and operates with the aid of a few key officials at the Pakistan Embassy in the Nepal capital.
The fugitive gangster, Lakdawala, arrested by the Mumbai Police from Patna on January 8, also disclosed two specific addresses of Dawood Ibrahim in Karachi during his police remand.
The two addresses told to the top officials at the Crime Branch are: 6A, Khayaban Tanzim Phase-5, Defence Housing Area, Karachi and D-13, Block 4, Clifton, Karachi.
One address is of Khayaban Tanzim phase, in Defence Housing Area while the other is of his Clifton-based bungalow in Karachi.
He has also confirmed addresses of Dawood’s brother Anees Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel, who also live in the Defence Housing Area of Karachi.
“Officials of other agencies are also questioning Lakdawala. We can only add at this stage that he is a prize catch, who has crucial information about the D-Company’s FICN and drug racket,” a senior official of the Mumbai Police told IANS over the phone.
Once hiding in Canada, Lakdawala was also involved in peddling drugs into Europe through Rotterdam port in the Netherlands. The gangster revealed that the D-Company’s drug racket was first operated by late Iqbal Mirchi and of late by Chhota Shakeel, who is looking after the lucrative contraband business.
Lakdawala said that much of the drugs are smuggled out of Afghanistan and later pushed through the Karachi port to South East Asia, as well as to destinations in Europe.
The D-Company has a significant hold in Thailand and Bangladesh from where drugs are further smuggled to other destinations including India.
Sources said that Ejaz Lakdawala, who along with Chhota Rajan parted ways with Dawood Ibrahim post the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, had attempted to eliminate the D-Company boss, during the funeral of Dawood”s daughter Maria, in Karachi a decade ago.
The operation was led by Chhota Rajan’s sharp shooter Vicky Malhotra. However Dawood did not turn up at the funeral procession, and the mission had to be aborted. Later, Lakdawala had a dispute over payments with Rajan and established his own gang, somewhere in Cambodia.
Uttar Pradesh-based gangster Babloo Srivastava, presently lodged in Bareilly Central Jail, also had close links with Lakdawala. Both were involved in several cases of extortion across India.
Underworld don Ejaz Lakdawala’s daughter Soniya Lakdawala was also looking after the gangs monetary operations, sources said.
A fake passport, used by Soniya to flee from India, was instrumental in the nabbing of Ejaz Lakdawala.
To hide Lakdawala’s identity, Soniya deliberately used a different name. Sources said that Soniya changed her name to Shifa Shaikh, after her wedding to one Shahid Shaikh from Mumbai. Her name before her wedding, as per her passport, was Soniya Advani.
Mumbai Police said that at a later stage, to verify certain information, daughter and father would be confronted during interrogation.
The Intelligence reports suggest that D-Company is planning to kill Ejaz Lakdawala once he is lodged in jail.
(Agencies)
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