‘Mumbai developer flew with Dawood aide Moti to SA for FIFA World Cup’

Moti alias Jabir Motiwalla alias Siddiqui, a Pakiatani national, was arrested by the London police from Hilton hotel last Friday in connection with a suspected drug deal. He is in the UK on a 10-year visa.

Although security agencies are yet to find out key Dawood aide Jabir Moti’s direct involvement in the D-Company’s mafia operations in the country, sources claimed several Mumbai-based businessmen, with purported links to the gangster, are close to Moti.

Sources have claimed that several Mumbai-based businessmen with purported links to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim (in photo) are close to Jabir Moti, a Pakistani national arrested by London Police on August 17, 2018. (HT File Photo)

One such businessman is a developer from south Mumbai, who was befriended by Moti over the years. The developer allegedly flew with Moti to South Africa, to watch the FIFA World Cup finals in 2010.

Moti alias Jabir Motiwalla alias Siddiqui, a Pakiatani national, was arrested by the London police from Hilton hotel last Friday in connection with a suspected drug deal. He is in the UK on a 10-year visa.

The developer had a meteoric rise in the property market in the city, and the country at large, in the first decade of 2000. Sources said the developer, a football buff, had flown to Johannesburg in South Africa by a chartered aircraft to watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals. En route, he made a stopover at Dubai from where Moti had joined him in the journey. South Africa, Cape Town in particular, has long been known to be a base for Dawood’s global financial operations, and Moti travelled there frequently to manage the D-Company’s business affairs.

Sources said the developer later ran into financial problems, following his arrest in a major scam.

Meanwhile, a former top cop in Mumbai described Moti’s arrest as a “big blow” to Dawood’s global finances and investments. “Moti works like a chartered accountant for D-Company. He manages the entire income generated by Dawood’s global crime syndicate. The black money gathered from drugs, hawala, betting and arms smuggling is converted into white by Moti, who invests ill-gotten gains in real estate and stocks around the world, especially in Pakistan (Karachi), the UAE and UK (London),” the former top cop said.

The cop said Moti’s interrogation would reveal many unknown facets of D-Company’s operations and funding of terrorist organisations under the guise of charity.

Moti has long been under the radar of security agencies around the world for suspected terror funding.

Sources said Moti, who belongs to the Kutchi Memon community, began as a stock broker in Karachi and ran into losses. He came across Dawood in the mid-1990s and soon became the latter’s right-hand man. “While Dawood and his brothers were busy expanding business, Moti took care of the finances,” sources said. Moti later became a member of the Karachi Stock Exchange and invested D-Company’s money in stocks, and later in real estate.

Moti is also said to be close to former Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad. In fact, sources claimed, he was the key organiser of the much-hyped wedding of Dawood’s daughter Mahrukh with Miandad’s son Junaid. The marriage was solemnised at a five-star hotel in Dubai in 2005. As Indian security sleuths maintained a close watch over the occasion, Dawood and his cronies were forced to make secret appearances, leaving Moti to manage the function and greet guests.