NIA raids D-Co men in Mumbai-Thane, detains top Dargahs trustee

Mumbai, May 9 (IANS) In one of the biggest operations in recent times, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday raided 29 locations in Mumbai and Thane linked with associates of absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, detained at least 8 persons including a top trustee of two famed dargahs, besides recovering a cache of arms and large amounts of cash.

Those detained include businessman Suhail Khandwani, a trustee of Haji Ali Dargah and also a Mahim Dargah Managing Trustee, who allegedly had some business dealing with the family of Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, currently in judicial custody since over two months.

Another is Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit - a relative of dreaded underworld gangster Chhota Shakeel, who was detained from his home south Mumbai and others including hawala operators and gangland sharpshooters.

The NIA started its raids around dawn at 24 locations in Mumbai and 5 places in Mira Road-Bhayander (Thane) in separate cases registered in January and February this year.

The probe pertains to terror/criminal activities of the D-Gang including his key aides like Chhota Shakeel, Javed Patel alias Javed Chikna, the dreaded Abdul Razzaq Memon alias Tiger Memon who carried out the March 12, 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts.

The NIA said that these persons are indulging in arms smuggling, narco-terror, money-laundering, circulating fake Indian currency notes and other major crimes.

They are also involved in acquiring important assets to raise terror funds and are in active collaboration with global terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al Qaeda.

Monday's raids at various premises of the suspected D-gang associates resulted in the seizure of incriminating materials like electronic devices, documents of real estate investments, large amounts of cash and arms cache, the quantities of which has not been disclosed.

NIA teams along with local police swooped at multiple locations in Nagpada, Dongri, Bhendi Bazar, Mahim, Bandra, Santacruz, Goregaon, Borivali, Mira Road, and Bhayander.

The latest action is part of the probe and the subsequent series of raids taken up since February with the arrest of Minister Malik by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money-laundering case arising out of a 20-year tainted land deal involving the Goawala Compound in Kurla suburb.