Police to conduct DNA test to confirm Lakdawala’s identity

A DNA test will be done to confirm arrested gangster Ejaz Lakdawala’s identity, said Mumbai Police’s crime branch. Lakdawala is currently in judicial custody for

A DNA test will be done to confirm arrested gangster Ejaz Lakdawala’s identity, said Mumbai Police’s crime branch. Lakdawala is currently in judicial custody for his involvement in a case of extortion.

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Lakdawala, who has been absconding for decades, was arrested in Patna, on Wednesday. He was positively identified by his daughter Sonia Shaikh, who was arrested on December 28, 2019. Crime branch officials said a DNA will be conducted to match Lakdawala’s samples with those of Shaikh and Lakdawala’s elder brother Aquil, who is also in judicial custody.

“DNA test is compulsory because there are chances that he could deny his identity in court. We have taken the sample and that has been sent to Kalina forensic science laboratory. However, Ejaz was identified by his daughter Sonia when he was brought to Mumbai on Wednesday,” said an officer of the crime branch.

While investigating Lakdawala’s daughter, who is also a suspect in the extortion case, crime branch learnt Shaikh was born in Bhabha Hospital, in Bandra, in 1997. At the time Lakdawala was in Nashik Jail and he allegedly instructed the family to ensure Shaikh’s birth certificate showed her father’s name as Manish Shyam Advani. When Lakdawala escaped from Nashik Jail in 1998 and fled to Malaysia, he used a passport in the name of Manish Shyam Advani.

Five years later, Lakdawala’s wife, identified on Shaikh’s passport as Rekha Advani, and Shaikh went to Malaysia, where Shaikh was identified as Aquila Shaikh. Shaikh has told Mumbai Police that she completed her schooling from Nepal and has submitted her school certificate as proof, which the crime branch will verify.

Lakdawala, a former aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, has operated out of Nepal for the past seven or eight years, said Mumbai Police. He became father to a son in 2012 who is believed to be in Nepal with Lakdawala’s wife.

Lakdawala has been on India’s most wanted list since 1998 and is wanted in 27 cases of murder and attempted murder; and 80 cases of extortion in Mumbai alone.