Isn’t it high time for MEA to declassify the Anees Ibrahim files?

Dawood  was a man known to be immensely resourceful. At one point of time he had key Mumbai politicians and policemen on his payroll. He gradually became close to the Mumbai Police as he was instrumental in the decimation of the Haji Mastan Gang. The Mumbai Police covertly and overtly protected him in return for this favour. 

Politicians also became his close friends. He then left Bombay  and  started living a lavish king-size life and that too rather brazenly. He continued to shuttle between the nascent power centers of Gulf, Dubai, Sharjah etc. in the 80's. In the process he ended up extending the length and breadth of his network .Though wanted in  crimes he was left in peace in the Gulf. Meanwhile his men continued to operate in Mumbai without any fear of reprisal and without much competition from rival gangs either.

Popularly known as the honcho of the corporate organisation colloquially referred to as D-Company- Dawood appeared as a hawala operator in Mumbai, then referred to as Bombay in the early 70's. He rapidly began smuggling of  electronic goods  and gold, drugs opium and heroin, and then diversified into contract killing, extortion, managing inter gang disputes, and most importantly land grabbing on a massive scale. His first partnership with a  terrorist organisation in the late 70's, when he regularly helped ULFA  leaders to channel their rupee gains running into several hundred crores from their extortion racket blackmailing marwaris and other tea estate owners. This money was then converted into dollars by Dawood. ULFA then exchanged them for arms.

The thirteen RDX blasts organized in Mumbai on 13th March 1993 were the handiwork of Dawood,Tiger Memon, Yakub Memon, Anees Ibrahim, Abu Salem  and Mohammed Dosa, who were hand in glove with all of the other umbrella organisations of the Pakistan ISI. Ten bombs went off in quick succession. 

Highly sophisticated arms were smuggled in through various shadowy landings in January and February 1993. This was in active collusion with custom and police officers, all covertly organized by Anees Ibrahim. Anees who is Dawood's younger brother was effectively his number 2 at that time. Pakistani and Indian expatriate smugglers committed these heinous crimes working in close coordination with the ISI.

None of the above have been apprehended so far, though they are reportedly staying in Pakistan and UAE. The closest that the Indian authorities were to getting one of them was Anees Ibrahim. It was Ibrahim who smuggled the explosives and arms into India. Due to an Interpol Red Alert he was arrested in Bahrain in Feb/March 1996. However, he was not handed over to India by Bahrain due to extradition related difficulties. CBI officers who were in Bahrain to take him to India were forced to return empty handed. This whole matter was handled by a lackadaisical MEA. Since he is Dawood's brother and also the number two in the D Company, the complete failure to arrest him by Indian investigating agencies requires an explanation .There are incriminating papers and files in MEA related to the Anees Ibrahim episode.

Dawood has not surrendered, neither is he likely to surrender any time soon. He tried to negotiate a settlement first with the CBI and was duly ignored by the CBI. He later tried to negotiate a return through his lawyer Ram Jethmalani with the Government of India and was again ignored. Why this was done in such a clandestine manner is something which remains open to question. A white paper on this vexed question appears to be the need of the hour. More importantly, why  was Anees Ibrahim casually handed over to Sharjah authorities of the United Arab Emirates. It is alleged that Anees had travelled from Sharjah to Bahrain to enjoy a drink or two, as Sharjah was a 'dry' city. His proclivity for drinking heavily saw him arrested  by the Bahrain Interpol around March 1996.  Three CBI officers that included this author promptly responded to the summons of the Bahrain Police. It is then that the UAE Government flexed its muscles. 

The Emir of Bahrain over ruled his police and summarily denied Anees Ibrahim's custody to the CBI. Ibrahim was then returned to UAE (Sharjah) ostensibly to face some criminal charges there. We remonstrated with the Bahrain Police. The Chief of CID Bahrain, a Britisher, was demonstrably upset with his Government but pleaded helplessness against the all powerful Emir’s order. 

We returned empty handed and drenched in a sense of failure and disaappointment. Every bit of what happened was reported by us to our Ambassador to Bahrain via the MEA.Why the MEA could not manage the extradition remains a deeper mystery deeper than the Bermuda Triangle.