In a big catch, the Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested a handler of fugitive and most-wanted gangster Ejaz lakdawala, who was earlier a close confidant of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. With a bid to build up the D-company’s terror among the business tycoons, the accused — Mohammad Yusuf — was given a contract for killing two Mumbai and one Haryana based businessmen by lakdawala. With the arrest of Yusuf, the Delhi Police also claimed to have busted the ring of expansion of D-company in the National Capital Region (NCR).
On secret information, Yusuf (30) of Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly was arrested from North Delhi’s Mukarba Chowk on March 18, when he had come to meet his associate. A pistol with live cartridges was also recovered from his possession.
According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav, lakdawala was eyeing to extend his tentacles in north India by recruiting sharp shooters. For this, he contacted Mohammad Yusuf, who is a drug trafficker and tasked him to recruit such youths who could become his sharp shooters, especially from Punjab region as he was in close contact with criminals in the State.
“In 2014, he came in contact with Ejaz lakdawala’s henchmen in Mumbai. Through them, he came in contact with lakdawala who is probably at present somewhere in North America, though he keeps shifting bases to South-East Asia as well. He remained in contact with lakdawala through Voice over Internet Protocol Calling (VOIP) and several international numbers of different countries spread over nearly all continents,” said Yadav.
lakdawala, who at present is operating from North America, was earlier an associate of Dawood Ibrahim. However, later on he joined hands with Chota Rajan. Subsequently, he also parted ways with Chota Rajan and set up his own underworld network. His main targets include Bollywood celebrities and other businessman for extortion.
Yadav said, “Yusuf roped in Sonu alias Rajender of Jalandhar, Punjab, an active and desperate criminal for carrying out the tasks that would be assigned to him. Sonu has eight criminal involvements in Punjab pertaining to drug trafficking, robbery and extortion.”
In the same year, Sonu alongwith his associates Swarn alias Kalu and Binder, all from Punjab were sent to Mumbai. There, they met an associate of lakdawala, who provided them with weapons to shoot a famous sweet shop owner in Borivali, but when they attempted to shoot, their weapon misfired and they fled from the scene.
Afterwards, on the instructions of lakdawala, Sonu was assigned to eliminate a top builder in of Borivali. Sonu alongwith his associate Mandeep were unable to execute the task because in spite of repeated visits to the area, they could not get a clear opportunity to target the builder. Since they feared getting spotted, they returned to Punjab.
Sonu was then tasked to eliminate an industrialist having his residence in Delhi and his factory in the NCR. While waiting for instructions to act, Sonu was arrested by the Punjab Police in a case of drug trafficking and at present is lodged in Kapurthala Jail in Punjab.
Another police officer said that the same sweet shop owner was tried to target by two other sharpshooters of lakdawala — Sanjay Gautam and Sanjay Thakur — who were gunned down by Mumbai Police, when they had come to target him in 2003.