A special court observed in its judgment that gutka businessman JM Joshi knew fully well that Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees Ibrahim are global terrorists and extended them a helping hand in establishing a gutka factory in Pakistan.
The court on Monday sentenced the businessman along with two others to ten years of rigorous imprisonment under different provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA). They were also sentenced for criminal conspiracy among other offences. The court also imposed heavy fines of over Rs15 lakh on each of them, again under the stringent anti-organized crime law.
Joshi VS Rasiklal Dhariwal financial dispute settled Dawood helped settle it.
As per the prosecution case, Joshi and another gutka businessman Rasiklal Dhariwal had a financial dispute and Dawood helped settle it. They then helped him set up gutka units in Pakistan in exchange for his mediation. Dhariwal died pending trial.
Special Judge BD Shelke said in the detailed order that no doubt, in the normal course, extending help to a common person to set up a factory does not amount to an offence, however, Joshi knowing fully well that Dawood and Anees are global terrorists helped them in it. The court noted further that he also helped to provide a formula for manufacturing gutka and made available a permanent source of income to their organised crime syndicate.
He had been confined there for the purpose. Judge Shelke noted that Joshi arranged to send his employee by deceptive means and helped a global terrorist, abducted or kidnapped the employee and confined him with the help of associates of Anees. Judge Shelke noted that he was restrained in Karachi for more than 10 days. It also stated that the witness was enticed under the pretext that he is likely to be sent to Bangkok. All these acts, the court said, were done by the businessman in conspiracy with other co-accused including wanted accused Dawood and Anees.
