CBI lens on Dawood Ibrahim gutkha business

The CBI has sent judicial requests to the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan seeking information about the alleged links of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim with India-based gutkha manufacturers.

Sources said Letter Rogatory, a judicial request to get information, have been dispatched to Pakistan, the UK and the UAE seeking details of Dawood’s Gutkha business which is purportedly run by his brother Anees Ibrahim in Pakistan. The CBI recently filled a supplementary chargesheet against Dawood Ibrahim, his brother-in-law A.H. Antule, henchman Saleem Mohammed Ghaus besides two prominent Gutkha businessmen, J.M. Joshi of Goa Gutkha and R.L. Dhariwal, for allegedly helping Anees Ibrahim set up a Gutkha plant at Hyderabad in Sindh province. The case was investigated by the Mumbai police on the complaints of Mustafa Kabira where it was alleged that between February to May, 2002, he was approached to procure gutka pouch packaging machine worth '2.16 lakh from one Rajesh Pancharia and send them to Dawood’s brother Anees Ibrahim in Karachi with his other associates, they said. “During the investigation, alleged involvement of Joshi of Goa Gutkha and Dhariwal of Manichand Gutkha also came to light,” sources said.

The case was taken up by CBI on the request of the Maharashtra government.

The agency claimed to have established that the Gutka barons — Joshi and Dhariwal — had a business dispute. Dhariwal had allegedly refused to give 20 per cent share in profit to Joshi, sources said. It is alleged that Dhariwal used to supply Gutkha, a banned product in the UAE, in Dubai through the front company of Dawood which was covertly managed by his brother-in-law Abdul Hameed Antuley and one Saleem Mohammed Ghaus, they said. Using this support, it is alleged that Dhariwal had threatened Joshi not to demand 20 per cent share in profit from him, sources said. In its supplementary charg-esheet, the CBI alleged that undeterred by this, Joshi met Anees Ibrahim to settle dispute at Karachi in Sindh province of Pakistan, sources said. After the intervention of Dawood and Anees, long standing financial dispute was settled.

Joshi also provided all the help to Dawood to set up a gutka factory in Sindh province.

CBI investigation further showed the involvement of five accused Dawood, Antuley, Ghaus, Dhariwal and Joshi in addition to four accused named by Mumbai Police in its first chargesheet. The first charge sheet in the case was filed in 2005 against Jamiruddin

Ansari, Anees’s aide, who stated in his confession that he had visited Dubai in 2000 when he saw Joshi with Anees.