Chota
Rajan (L) and Dawood Ibrahim (R): When they were friends
The War
of Underworld Dons Sucks in Indian, Pakistani Agencies
By
Arun Rajnath
NEW
DELHI, September 22: The split between the mythical and mystical
underworld dons of India – Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan
– has turned into a war between the super intelligence agencies
of India and Pakistan.
The
Indian sensitive agencies and military intelligence have failed
so far to achieve their goal of eliminating Dawood Ibrahim, despite
their successful penetration into the D-Company. Likewise Chota
Rajan, once the second in command of Dawood, is being protected
by the Indian agencies.
But
observers watching the underworld scene say Chota Rajan is fast
losing ground as it has become difficult for him to lie low in
Muslim countries. One highly placed source told the South
Asia Tribune Rajan is in constant touch with the underworld
of Japan.
Recently,
he said, a meeting of the underworld dons was held in Tokyo directly
under the nose of the Japanese police. The dons elected their
new chief who allegedly has links with Rajan. Therefore, intelligence
experts say Rajan could shift base from Malaysia to Japan for
a safe hideout. Had he not been under protection of the Indian
sensitive agencies, the Dawood hounds would have eliminated him
by now.
In
fact, the whole issue has become a Hindu-Muslim showdown. In Muslim
countries Chota Rajan cannot develop his base but Dawood has an
advantage there.
In
Europe and America, the mafias do not allow other dons to operate.
Sources say Rajan had tried to operate in countries which formed
the unbroken Soviet Union, but the KGB could not brook such elements.
After
the Soviet Union, the KGB had also become defunct and KGB bosses
and agents entered into other businesses or the underworld. Now
they have 100 per cent access to all business centers of the former
Soviet Union and without their permission, no foreign businessman
can operate in any of these countries.
Secondly,
Dawood still has influence in the Mumbai underworld and many responsible
persons are on his payroll including sharpshooters of the Mumbai
police. This has become the matter of investigation as many of
those shot for being members of the Dawood gang actually belonged
to the Chota Rajan gang.
While
Mumbai police is hunting the Rajan gangs, the Indian sensitive
agencies support Rajan, though discreetly. These agencies are
constantly protecting him from Dawood’s sharpshooters as
well as the Mumbai police.
This
is evident by the fact that Rajan’s right hand man Babloo
Srivastava is also being ‘used’ by sensitive agencies
whenever his services are needed. At present Babloo is in the
Lucknow jail but he is enjoying the full ‘five-star facilities’
inside, courtesy the security agencies. He still manages his kidnapping
business with Rajan’s help.
Babloo
operates through Fazalu after they first met in 1995 in Tihar
Jail, New Delhi, when he was there on charges of extortion. Since
then Fazalu has been operating on Babloo’s instructions.
Their association came into open in 1996 when Fazalu kidnapped
one of the owners of Hyatt Regency Hotel, Umesh Shroff in New
Delhi.
In
1997, Fazalu escaped to Nepal when his attempt to kidnap a businessman
in Mumbai failed. His girlfriend Archana Sharma divulged all the
secrets about how they were involved in various kidnappings and
extortions on the instructions of Babloo Srivastava who operated
from jail with Chota Rajan’s help.
Sources
told the South Asia Tribune that Fazalu usually intimidates
his ‘target’ in the name of Chota Rajan from satellite
phone which is untraceable in India. Indian agencies do not possess
instruments and equipment to trace a call from a satellite phone.
They can trace the details of calls made by the GSM or CDMA mobile
phones only.
Babloo
Srivastava was first allegedly used by Indian sensitive agencies
in the murder of Mirza Dilshad Beg who was a Dawood-ISI front
man in Nepal. Sources say that Babloo’s henchmen Ravi and
Vikki had killed Beg, an MP in the Nepalese Parliament, on June
29, 1995 when two ‘unknown’ assailants fired at him.
Initially,
Babloo was very close to Beg, and Beg even had managed a fake
passport for him to go abroad to avoid arrest by the Indians.
But after the 1992 Bombay Bomb Blast, ‘patriotism’
and ‘nationalism’ prevailed, and Babloo and Chota
Rajan parted ways from Dawood and his gang.
Babloo
Srivastava’s former aide BP Singh told the South Asia
Tribune from Lucknow that “Babloo was initially with
Dawood. He was also very close to Mirza Dilshad Beg. In fact they
used to meet at the Karnali Hotel in Kathmandu that was also the
base of the ISI. Babloo once mentioned to me that a Pakistani
filmmaker was also involved in this hotel business.”
“I
vividly remember that some Pakistani diplomats used to visit that
hotel. I remember seeing them once in that hotel. Actually a couple,
Raja Irfanullah and Zahida Awan, owned that hotel. It was the
center of dubious activities,” BP Singh said.
It
is noteworthy that BP Singh is also close to a former Janata Dal
Member of Parliament from an eastern district of Uttar Pradesh.
Babloo
Srivastava initially had offered help in Dawood’s case to
get some facilities in jail. Sources say that he is living a five-star
life in Lucknow jail. He also contested the 2002 Legislative Assembly
elections in Uttar Pradesh and May 2004 Parliament elections,
but lost.
Ironically this king kidnapper has turned into a writer and one
of his books, written in Hindi, is entitled, ‘Apharan
Se Kaise Bachen’ (How to Protect Ourselves From Kidnappers).
Sources say he is also writing a book on Dawood Ibrahim and his
modus operandi.
These
sources told the South Asia Tribune Babloo Srivastava
is providing information about Dawood to the sensitive agencies
who used this info during the Secretary level talks between India
and Pakistan. In fact, this is all being done at the instance
of Indian sensitive agencies to put pressure on Pakistan to hand
over Dawood to India or abandon him to be killed by the goons
of Chota Rajan-Babloo Srivastava.
This
is also evident from the Most Wanted list of the Interpol in which
Chota Rajan’s name is ‘missing’ though other
petty offenders are there against whom Red Corner Notices have
been issued.
It
is also noteworthy that the agencies have neither issued Red Corner
notice against Chota Rajan nor included his name in the ‘Most
Wanted’ list. The names which do appear on the Red Corner
List include Amanullah Khan, Dawood Ibrahim, Memon Ayub, Prabhakaran,
Merchant Tahir, Sheikh Shakil, Al Bashar Muhammed Amin, Wassan
Singh, Hitesh Kalita, Roop Chand Pardesi, Khatri Riyaz, Esmail
Haji Ahmed Ebrahim, Sayeed Arif, Chandrashekhar Reddy, Muhammed
Ahmed Dosa, Ramesh Perumal, Paramjeet Singh Mallih and Jumani
Samira (woman offender).
Intelligence
experts say that Dawood would be eliminated by the ISI itself
whenever he becomes irrelevant. The US has already declared him
as a Global terrorist for his alleged links with Al-Qaeda. International
pressure is gradually mounting on Pakistan on this issue.
Sources
say that the ISI has already started nurturing another group.
Under this strategy the group of Anwar (Chota Shakeel’s
brother), Syed Muzaffar, and Yusuf Ghodrawala is being raised
to substitute the D-Company. It is said that Anwar is in Pakistan
while the two others have made their base in Thailand.
