In April D-gang sent ₹25 lakh for a “sensational act” in Mumbai: NIA

The charge-sheet filed by the agency on Saturday claims the amount was sent to arrested accused, Arif Abubakar Shaikh and his brother Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh, both residents of Mumbai, through a Surat based hawala operator

Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has claimed that this April gangster Chhota Shakeel routed ₹25 lakh via hawala to two men to “commit big sensational act in Mumbai.”

Chhota Shakeel

The charge-sheet filed by the agency on Saturday claims the amount was sent to arrested accused, Arif Abubakar Shaikh and his brother Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh, both residents of Mumbai, through a Surat based hawala operator.

“It is established that one protected witness KW-6, a Surat based hawala operator, had received instructions from a Pakistani national based in Dubai, to transfer ₹25 lakh to accused Shabbir Shaikh (A-2) at Mumbai, stating that this money belongs to Chhota Shakeel and needs to be sent to Mumbai on urgent basis. The CDR analysis shows that the said Pakistani national was in touch with protected witness KW-6 of Surat through WhatsApp as well as direct calls from his Dubai mobile number to the mobile numbers of KW-6,” states the charge-sheet.

The NIA claims its probe has revealed that this Dubai-based Pakistani national whose identity has not been mentioned in the charge-sheet, has sent between ₹12-13 crore via the to India through the Surat based hawala operator.

Part of this money, the tranche of ₹25 lakh, says the NIA, was “sent to Shaikh brothers from Pakistan via Dubai by Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel for the purpose of furtherance of commission of terrorist activities and committing big sensational incidents in Mumbai area.” However, in the pages of the charge-sheet made available to the media, there are no further details about the terror conspiracy.

It’s the agency’s case that of the ₹25 lakh, Shabbir kept ₹5 lakh in his possession and the rest were given to Arif. The ₹5 lakh was recovered from Shabbir at the time of his arrest in May this year. The men who allegedly delivered the cash to Shaikh brothers have been cited as witnesses in the case and the NIA says it has traced the hawala channel. Investigators say the ₹25 lakh was delivered to the brothers at Malad in April and the code word Shahid was used for Shabbir and 25 kilos for ₹25 lakh

The federal agency had on February 3 registered a case against fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, his brother Anees and their close aide Shakeel Babu Shaikh aka Chhota Shakeel among others for their alleged involvement in arms smuggling, narco-terrorism, money laundering, circulation of fake Indian currency notes and unauthorised possession or involvement in acquisition of assets for raising terror funds and working in active collaboration with international terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Al Qaeda.

On May 12, the agency had arrested two of the accused, Arif Abubakar Shaikh and Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh, in connection with the case. Fruit was arrested in August on allegations that he took over the gang’s business after the death of Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar.

The NIA has also listed three instances in the charge-sheet to show the accused had extorted money from various businessmen in Mumbai and transferred the same to Dawood gang members in Pakistan using hawala channels. The NIA says businessman Salim Qureshi aka Salim Fruit who is also arrested had partnered with two others to undertake contracts for demolition of old buildings in Bhendi Bazar area in South Mumbai where Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) is carrying out a massive redevelopment project. Salim Fruit’s firm had allegedly purchased two tenanted buildings, six shops and three rooms and had sold the same to SBUT at much higher rates. The agency claims that whoever were awarded the work by SBUT to demolish old buildings had to pay some money to the trust, as in the process of dismantling the old buildings, the contractors/ firms got scrap material like old wood, iron etc., for which they earned considerable money in the scrap market.

The agency added that due to threat posed by Chhota Shakeel and Fruit, the trust had to waive off ₹70 lakh to be paid by Fruit’s firm to the trust. Besides, Salim Fruit had also allegedly forced his two partners to share 25% profit from their firm with Chhota Shakeel as his share.