ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Sharma pulls the plug on Dawood plan to eliminate rivals

Jake Khan in Bombay

The arrest of middleman-fixer-politician Romesh Sharma, which caused a storm in the corridors of power in Delhi, has also exposed some plans of the Dawood Ibrahim gang which would have caused an upheaval among the bhais (literally elder brother; used in the underworld as a term of 'respect' for gangsters) from Bombay now hiding abroad.

"Sharma confessed to the Delhi police that he and his friends [Dawood and Abu Salem] were in the process of eliminating Dawood's rivals," said a deputy inspector general of police at the Bombay office of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Rajendra Nikhalje aka Chhota Rajan, who is now based in Malaysia, Om Prakash 'Babloo' Srivastava, who is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, Dubai-based Irfan Goga, and Bombay-based Arun Gawli were some of the rivals targeted.

Sharma has confessed to having arranged to sneak Dawood's men into Tihar to kill Srivastava, who is protected by his own men in the prison, in September. Following the admission, Srivastava was shifted to an anda cell, a high-security barrack within the prison.

Sharma had also arranged for fake passports for Dawood's men to travel to Singapore via Kathmandu to attack the growing criminal empire of Chhota Rajan in East Asia. Rajan, who got wind of the plan, fled to Australia for a couple of weeks. "We are not sure of the reason for his trip to Australia and New Zealand, but yes, he was there without prior planning," an associate of the gangster in Bombay disclosed.

While the Dawood-Sharma combine failed in these two operations, it managed to eliminate Goga. A resident of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates, Goga had become a thorn for Dawood's clan in Dubai. With the killing of Mirza Dilshad Beg, a former minister in Nepal, in August, Goga's activities against his former "mai-baap" (which was how Goga used to address Dawood earlier) had crossed the bounds of the Karachi-based gangster's tolerance.

Goga was reported missing since November 10 and his wife, Naseema, lodged a complaint with the UAE police headquarters at Al-Mulla Plaza. Some 28 people, including Anees Ibrahim, Iqbal Ibrahim, Mustafa Majnun, Mohammed Dossa, Ahmed Saab, owner of Hotel Al-Haram, and several Indian and Pakistan youths, were detained and released after their passports were impounded by the Dubai police.

"We don't know why the police here [in Dubai] is trying to link Sharma's arrest in Delhi and Goga's disappearance in Dubai," an Ajman-based aide of Chhota Shakeel said on the phone.

Besides investigations into Sharma's links with top industrialists and his shady deals in the corporate world, at least four law-enforcement agencies are investigating his nexus with the underworld and the origin of his vast, unaccounted wealth and properties in Bombay.

These are a special investigation team of the income-tax department headed by D D Das, a special task force of the Central Bureau of Investigation led by Deputy Inspector General Satish Mathur, a team from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence under D D Rana, and Unit VII of the crime branch of the Bombay police led by Senior Inspector Vilas Tupe.

The IT department and the DRI are trying to trace the source of Sharma's income and properties. IT sleuths had raided Sharma's terrace flat at Sant Sadan, Union Park, Khar, in north-west Bombay. Sharma had allegedly grabbed the property from the landlord, Harcharan Singh, by forging some papers. In the three-hour raid, the department seized several papers, files, and a green diary. But it has refused to comment on the contents and their significance.

The DRI is looking into Sharma's hawala (illegal foreign exchange) dealings.

The CBI is looking into Sharma's criminal history in Bombay. "We are investigating cases registered against him with the local police," DIG Mathur said. Mathur is also co-ordinating with other law-enforcement agencies to prepare a comprehensive report on Sharma for the Union home ministry.

But it is the crime branch that is delving into Sharma's links with the underworld. Apart from the many land-grab cases, it is investigating extortion complaints against Sharma. Senior Inspector Tupe has already submitted a bulky dossier to Deputy Commissioner of Police (detection) Param Bir Singh.

According to DCP Singh, Sharma used Dawood's muscle to grab prime properties in the city, which is confirmed by top aides of the gangster. "He (Sharma) used to come to us for settlement of property disputes. At times we also lent our chokras (boys) to him to sort out problems," Karachi-based Chhota Shakeel told Rediff On The NeT.

But Shakeel denied that Sharma was Dawood's contact man in Delhi. "Ours was purely a business relationship," he claimed.

Sharma is also believed to have made use of Abu Salem in his extortion rackets in Bombay. At least three businessmen living in the swank Pedder Road area had approached the anti-extortion cell of the police with complaints about Salem's threats, with Sharma figuring in the complaints as the conduit for the money. Salem had demanded Rs 10 million from each man, finally settling for Rs 2.5 million.

One of the businessmen, an exporter, was told to meet Sharma at a specific time at his Mayfair Garden residence in New Delhi. "Salem called on Sharma's mobile when the businessman was sitting in his office," said an IPS officer from Bombay.

The CBI claims to possess at least three taped conversations of Sharma with Salem and records of calls made from and received on Sharma's mobile. One of the taped conversations also mentions Sharma's strategy to bump off Srivastava in jail.

The Bombay police plan to seek Sharma's custody after their Delhi counterparts and the CBI complete their inquiries.

RELATED REPORT:
No party untouched by Romesh Sharma, say the cops

Tell us what you think of this report