Chhota Shakeel would follow-up with extortion calls and keep the money rolling in
Chhota Shakeel would follow-up with extortion calls and keep the money rolling in
Chhota Shakeel aide Rashid Malbari has been in India for the last one year, making extortion calls to businessmen, miners, hawala dealers, realtors and even smugglers.
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Rashid Malbari now (left), and his image on Interpol website (right) |
Rashid, who was taken into police custody on Thursday, said he had done a recce in many places including Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to activate the network destroyed by investigating agencies.
Soon after Rashid's arrest, police nabbed two more persons who provided him with logistical support. The duo, Ismail Kaup and Ateeq, are being interrogated, police said.
Rashid, who came to India through Nepal, had established his network and had fanned out assignments including collecting details about the "big fish". He would then pass on the details to his boss in Pakistan who would made extortion calls to keep the money rolling in.
No complaints Ironically, no one had complained to the police about the calls. Even Rashid was confident that there'd be no conviction if he was caught since no one would come forward to give evidence, fearing repercussions, a senior police officer said.
Rashid, who had made several such extortion calls in Mumbai, will be interrogated by the Mumbai crime branch.
He may even be questioned by Bangkok police for crimes committed there, a police officer said.
Besides the protection money business, Rashid was also assigned to set up a network to carry out hawala trade, arms and drugs smuggling.
The drugs and arms trade could only be possible with the help of the ISI which offered safe passage in return. This happened with Dawood and Tiger Memon also, senior officials said.
A fourth standard dropout, Rashid knows many languages including Chinese, Arabic, Malayalam, Urdu, Tamil and Kannada. Rashid had recently got a passport from Karnataka under a fake name and had travelled to many places including China, Bangladesh and Dubai, police said.
