The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh for information on “global terrorist” Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, a key accused in the 1992-93 Mumbai blasts. The Central Bureau of Investigation had last announced a cash reward of Rs 15 lakh on the fugitive gangster in the late 1990s, a few years after the blasts.
The NIA has also placed a bounty of Rs 20 lakh on Dawood’s aide Chhota Shakeel, besides a bounty of Rs 15 lakh each on his other accomplices in the Mumbai blasts – Haji Anees alias Anees Ibrahim Shaikh, Javed Patel alias Javed Chikna and Ibrahim Mushtaq Abdul Razzak Memon alias Tiger Memon. As per a senior NIA official, all the fugitives are hiding in Pakistan.
Besides, the agency has released fresh photos of all of them, though Dawood’s photo resembles the one circulating for the past many decades.
In a statement issued on Friday, the NIA said Dawood, whose network is notoriously called D-Company, and his accomplices are “working in active collaboration with international terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Al-Qaeda”. The agency added that the accused have an active underworld criminal syndicate and engage in arms smuggling, narco-terrorism, circulation of fake currency, and money laundering to raise funds for terror activities.
An official from the NIA said, “The Pakistani economy is in a shambles. The cash reward would lure locals to share information about the fugitives leading a lavish life even as citizens struggle to get a decent meal.”
A fresh case was registered against Dawood and his aides in February 2022 after the NIA received inputs of D-Company establishing a special unit in India with the help of the aforementioned terror groups and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to carry out terror attacks and target prominent political leaders and businessmen.
Earlier in May, the NIA had raided 29 locations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region in connection to persons allegedly linked to the gangster. Those detained or questioned included trustee of Haji Ali Dargah and Mahim Dargah Suhail Khandwani, Mumbai blasts convict Samir Hingora, Chhota Shakeel’s brother-in-law Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit, and Qayyum Shaikh, a resident of Bhiwandi.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which initiated a money laundering probe based on the NIA probe, arrested former Maharashtra minority development minister Nawab Malik on February 23 for allegedly usurping a plot of land worth ₹300 crore at Kurla from a local resident allegedly with the help of Dawood’s late sister Haseena Parkar.
According to the NIA, Dawood has nine addresses in Pakistan, three Pakistani passports, and operates under several aliases.
