Dawood aide Ali Danish deported; nephew could be next

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Mumbai police have taken custody of Ali Danish, an aide of 1993 blast mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, after he was deported by the United States, police said. Sources said that Danish was arrested along with Ibrahim's nephew Sohail Kaskar, who is also wanted in several cases in Mumbai, adding that attempts are afoot to get him deported too.

Danish's father is said to work at the Jama Masjid in New Delhi. He has two brothers, one of whom is a doctor in Russia and the other a senior Supreme Court advocate. Sources said Danish left India in 2001 and went to Dubai, where he met Kaskar. They worked together for two to three years when Kaskar roped Danish into diamond smuggling.

They then decided to visit Russia where there are many diamond mines. A police officer said, "Danish tried to go to Russia but did not get a visa. So he went on a student visa. He got the visa in 2003-04 and even attended college there for two years and then began to smuggle diamonds."

Kaskar and Danish later visited Spain, where for the first time they came on the American agencies radar, sources said. After that, American and Spanish agencies laid a trap and arrested them after police officers posed as terrorists and contacted them.

The undercover officers told the duo that they wanted to buy arms to overthrow the Colombian government. After their arrest, the case was given to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for investigation. Kaskar and Danish were held along with Hameed Chisti alias Benny and Wahab Chisti.

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