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NIA files charge sheet against Dawood, Chhota Shakeel, 3 others
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, his close aide Chhota Shakeel and three other members of the “D Company” — a name used for Ibrahim’s trans-national organised criminal syndicate — in connection with its probe into funding for terror activities in Mumbai and other areas, the agency said in a statement on Saturday
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, his close aide Chhota Shakeel and three other members of the “D Company” — a name used for Ibrahim’s trans-national organised criminal syndicate — in connection with its probe into funding for terror activities in Mumbai and other areas, the agency said in a statement on Saturday.
Apart from Dawood, who is a UN-designated global terrorist and Chhota Shakeel — both in Pakistan — three others recently named in the charge sheet were Arif Abubakar Shaikh alias Arif Bhaijaan, Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh and Mohammad Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit. All three have been arrested by the NIA.
The agency said the arrested trio had received funds from Dawood and Shakeel to carry out terror attacks across the country.
“Investigations have established that the accused persons who are members of the D-Company, a terrorist gang and an organized crime syndicate, had conspired to further the criminal activities of the gang by carrying out various types of unlawful activities. In furtherance of the said conspiracy, they raised, collected and extorted huge amounts of money by threatening and by putting person(s) in fear of death or grievous hurt, for the D-Company, for the benefit of an individual terrorist (Dawood Ibrahim) in the instant case, and with the intention to threaten the security of India and create terror in the minds of the general public,” said an NIA spokesperson in a statement.
“It has also been established that the arrested accused persons received huge amounts of money through hawala channels, from the absconding/wanted accused based abroad, meant for triggering sensational terrorist/criminal acts) in Mumbai and other parts of India to create terror in the minds of people. The accused persons were holding/in possession of the said ‘proceeds of terrorism’,” the statement added.
The federal anti terror agency had announced a reward of ₹25 lakh on Dawood in August.
Based in Karachi, Pakistan, and wanted for multiple terror activities in India, including the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, Dawood already has a bounty of $25 million on his head announced by the United Nations Security Council in 2003. He is among India’s most wanted men along with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his close aide Abdul Rauf Asghar and Hizbul Mujahideen founder Syed Salahuddin.
The NIA registered a fresh case against Dawood and his aides in February this year after receiving information that the “D Company” had established a special unit in India with the help of the other terror groups and Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to target prominent political leaders and businessmen in the country as well as support terror and sleeper cells of LeT, JeM and al-Qaeda across cities.
As part of the probe, the NIA carried out raids on May at 29 locations, including premises of Suhail Khandwani, a trustee of Haji Ali Dargah and Mahim Dargah; Samir Hingora, a convict in March 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai; Salim Fruit, who is the the brother-in-law of Chhota Shakeel; Guddu Pathan, a relative of Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar; and Qayyum Shaikh, a resident of Bhiwandi.
