‘Dawood’ birthday post lands youth in trouble

Kurla resident posted pictures of don to gain followers

Prank gone wrong: A snapshot of the Facebook post which brought the youth under the scanner.

A social media prank using the name of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar landed a Kurla youth in trouble on Saturday.

According to Crime Branch officers, Azhar Maniyar had put up a Facebook post on December 26, which is Dawood’s birthday. The post included a picture of a cake with the name ‘Dawood’ on it and three pictures of the gangster taken from the internet. It was accompanied by the caption ‘Happy Birthday Boss’.

Screenshots of the post went viral within the hour and were soon brought to the attention of the Mumbai Police, and the Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) was instructed to look into the matter. AEC officers started trying to identify the youth, whose display name on Facebook was Shera Chikna.

“During the investigation, we received information that Mohsin Shaikh, a reporter with a local daily newspaper, had written about the matter, after which Mr. Maniyar called him up and threatened him. Mr. Shaikh had registered a non-cognisable complaint with the Goregaon police police in this regard,” an AEC officer said.

With the help of local informants, the AEC obtained Mr. Maniyar’s father’s number, as the youth had been untraceable for two days. They told his father about the matter and advised him to bring his son in for inquiries as soon as possible to avoid making things harder for the family.

“The furious father had already given Mr. Maniyar the thrashing of his life when he brought him to the AEC office. He was scared out of his wits from the moment he stepped inside the office and we first had to calm him down as he was crying uncontrollably,” a Crime Branch officer said.

Gradually, the truth behind the post came out. “Mr. Maniyar has a friend named Dawood Hashmi and around a month ago, him and some other friends had celebrated Mr. Hashmi’s birthday at a hookah parlour in Bandra Kurla Complex. The first picture was of the cake that had been brought for Mr. Hashmi. Mr. Maniyar, in order to gain some attention and increase his follower count, added three pictures of Dawood and posted it on the gangster’s birthday,” an AEC officer said.

The officer said inquiries till now had not revealed any connection between Mr. Maniyar and the don, and added that he will be released as soon as all doubts have been cleared. “Given the seriousness of the charges against Dawood, we need to triple check every fact that comes to light before letting Mr. Maniyar go,” he said.