The Hindu : New Delhi News : Dubai don aides arrested

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Dubai don aides arrested

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, AUG. 10. Two alleged accomplices of underworld don Fazl-ur-Rehman who were demanding Rs. 25 lakhs as protection money from a South-West Delhi businessman have been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi police from near Vir Bhoomi in Central Delhi. Two country-made pistols and a briefcase containing some incriminating material have been recovered from their possession.

The Special Cell recently received a complaint from a businessman, who has a leather goods factory at Kapashera, that he had been getting extortion calls from Fazlu and his henchmen operating in Delhi. The callers had threatened to eliminate him and his family members if he did not cough up Rs. 25 lakhs.

Investigations revealed that Fazlu's accomplices were making the calls from different parts of the Capital, while he had made calls from Dubai and his close accomplice, Deepak, had been calling from Malaysia. At the instance of the Special Cell, the businessman agreed to negotiate with the callers and struck a deal for the first instalment of Rs. 2 lakhs. He was asked to come near Vir Bhoomi to make the payment.

Subsequently, the Special Cell sleuths laid a trap and arrested two of the suspects. They were identified as Mohammad Gufran (30) and Mohammad Parvez (28), both residents of Darbhanga in Bihar. During interrogation, Parvez disclosed that he had come to Delhi in 1992 and took up a job in a factory manufacturing bags. His brother, Javed, used to work for Fazlu. However in 2001, Javed and his accomplice were shot dead in an encounter with the Mumbai police.

In June 2004, Fazlu's contact, Shamshoor Ali, came in touch with Parvez and gave him Fazlu's telephone number to talk to him. During the conversation, Fazlu asked Parvez to identify rich businessmen from whom large sums of money could be extorted. Parvez then contacted Fazlu's another contact, Jafar, also a resident of Darbhanga, through whom Fazlu had got profiles of several industrialists and businessmen. The police found that Jafar, who was purportedly into leather goods business, had visited the factories and offices whose owners were later targeted by Fazlu. In the latest case also, Jafar had provided information about the Kapashera businessman to Parvez.

The police said Gufran, who was arrested in 2000 for threatening three businessmen for extortion in Delhi, earlier worked in a factory manufacturing leather bags. In due course, he came in contact with Parvez's brother, Javed, and started working for Fazlu. He disclosed that he used to be in regular touch with the underworld don and it was him who had directed Gufran to contact Parvez. Further probe into Fazlu's network in the Capital is on.

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