New Delhi: It was on Saturday afternoon at the Union Home Ministry where top officials of the NIA, IB, ED and IT have decided to raid the premises of the suspected associates of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar across Mumbai. According to the plan, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday conducted searches at 24 places in Mumbai Commissionerate and five places in Mira-Bhayandar Commissionerate and detained close associates of Dawood Ibrahim in the case, which was registered suo moto by the NIA.
"The case is about terror and criminal activities of the international terrorist network of D Company involving Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his associates, including Haji Anees, Shakeel Shaikh, Javed Patel and Tiger Memon, who are indulging in arms smuggling, narco-terrorism, money laundering, circulation of fake Indian currency notes," the NIA later in the day said after the search operation. The case also pertains to unauthorised possession of key assets for raising terror funds and working in active collaboration with the international terrorist organisations, including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Al Qaeda (AQ).
"During the searches conducted on Monday on the premises of Dawood Ibrahim, several incriminating materials, including electronic devices, documents of investments in real estate, cash and firearms were seized," the NIA said. A senior official in the Home Ministry told this correspondent that it was at the end of January and beginning of February a decision was taken to confiscate all activities of D company in India, especially in Mumbai.
"The NIA was entrusted with the task to conduct operations against D Company whereas all other Central agencies will support NIA," the official said. The NIA has also been asked to file cases under UAPA against D Company and its associates. In its instruction given to the NIA, the MHA has asked the investigating agency to probe terror funding, Narco terror, drugs smuggling and FICN business. The MHA has said that D Company in association with other terror groups like LeT, JeM, and AQ are creating terror in India. As asked by the MHA, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the recent past has filed a case against the former minister of Maharashtra Nawab Malik in connection with the Dawood Ibrahim money laundering case.
