Charge sheet filed to prove diesel smuggler's link to don

A few days after the Crime Branch arrested marine diesel smuggler Mohammed Ali Sheikh, in connection with the murder of his rival Chand Madar in September, gangster Chhota Shakeel had allegedly told Sheikh's son that he would "manage things" to ensure his father's freedom. HT reports.

A few days after the Crime Branch arrested marine diesel smuggler Mohammed Ali Sheikh, in connection with the murder of his rival Chand Madar in September, gangster Chhota Shakeel had allegedly told Sheikh's son that he would "manage things" to ensure his father's freedom.

HT Image

This conversation is among the many cited in the 4,000-page charge sheet filed by the Mumbai Crime Branch to prove Sheikh's link with fugitive underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim, and in Madar's murder. "We filed the charge sheet on Thursday and the court has taken cognizance," said special public prosecutor Kalpana Chavan.

The Crime Branch had arrested Sheikh and seven others after Madar was shot in the head from close range opposite Manama Hotel, near the GPO, on September 15. Madar had succumbed to his injury at the Bombay Hospital the next day.

The police had also arrested Shaikh Akthar Allah Rakha, Samad Ismail Shaikh, Majeed Abdul, Abdul Rehman Shah, Shahnawaz Anwar Shaikh, Shahid Shah and Mohammed Sageer Ansari (both sharpshooters) in connection with the case.

According to the police, Sheikh had paid a contract [of Rs 3 lakh] to kill Madar to one Rashid Batla, who in turn, had hired Sheikh Akhtar Allah Rakha.

Allah Rakha had then passed the money to Samad Ismail, who got the two sharpshooters from Jharkhand.