From paying pensions to families of gang members to securing college admissions for their children and solving domestic disputes, the D-company’s writ runs over numerous families loyal to Dawood Ibrahim, despite the fugitive’s absence from India for over three decades.
Most recent intercepts from Indian intelligence agencies show how the syndicate has been actively looking after families of its men languishing either in jail or killed in police encounters. Aside from its main business of extortion in real estate and Bollywood, the Mumbai mafia has been imposing itself in reconciliation of family disputes and petty matters, even getting students admitted to colleges.
Strong network An active city network effectively controlled from offshore locations runs the mafia’s kangaroo court, aside from doling out pensions and cash to families of scores of loyalists in Mumbai. In a conversation earlier this year, a woman associate of Dawood is asking a contact in Mumbai to deliver money on time to the daughter of a gang member now behind bars.
In another conversation in April, an elderly woman is heard telling Dawood’s key aide Chhota Shakeel that she did not get her monthly dole. Upon this, the fugitive don asks her to get in touch with an aide in Mumbai.
In another round of conversations in April, Shakeel asks an aide, who is mostly based in Zimbabwe, to start sending a pension of Rs. 10,000 to the family member of an accused lodged in Kalyan jail. The gang member is also keen on being shifted to Arthur Road, Shakeel says. Shakeel is heard eagerly enquiring about the result of the cases against his men, inputs reveal.
Shakeel himself has been actively involved in arbitration of domestic matters and disputes; in one of these, he receives a call from his distant uncle whose daughter is being poorly treated by the in-laws.
Shakeel then asks for numbers of the girl’s husband and later instructs an emissary to visit the house of her in-laws with a message from the fugitive don. Shakeel assures his uncle that the dispute will be taken care of.
In his conversations with the niece’s in-laws, Shakeel is heard getting irked at their excuse that the daughter-in-law is not willing to bear a child and is not a “suitable wife”.
Upon this, he hurls a slew of foul words at them.
In February, he is approached by a woman relative whose husband is having an extramarital affair. Shakeel calls up the husband and directs him to behave.
College admission Among the other assistance extended by the fugitive don is securing college admissions for children of gang members.
In March, Shakeel calls up his aide in Mumbai to enquire about the admission of a boy into KC College at Churchgate. He then asks if the percentage of the boy is good, to which the aide replies: “70%.”
This is the fifth part of the six-part series on Dawood Ibrahim's crime syndicate. Read >part 1 , >part 2 , >part 3 and >part 4 here.
