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Volume 4, No. 2 - August 2004 << Back to formatted version


Extraditions: Flight to Freedom?

SAJI CHERIAN

Post September 11, there has been a virtual deluge of wanted criminals, including many who have linkages with terrorist groups and operations, deported from foreign shores into Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, bringing joy to the police apparatus in the country, and especially the city cops of Mumbai. A majority of these criminals have been deported from Dubai, a favourite haunt for the crime-syndicates, as the city-state apparently came under increasing pressure from the US and other countries to take action against the latter. However, the latest name that may be added to the list is that of mafia don Abu Salem, as a result of a Lisbon High Court order on July 19, 2004, for his extradition to India. Salem is among the prime conspirators in the March 1993 multiple Mumbai Blasts, the largest single act of terrorism in India, in which 257 persons were killed, and another 713 injured. This carnage had been orchestrated by the Dawood Ibrahim gang, at the behest of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), with explosives and logistics support, as well as subsequent safe havens for the perpetrators, provided by Pakistan.

Organised crime syndicates, especially the one led by Dawood Ibrahim, have long had links with a range of terrorist groups, including a complex web of connections that have been exposed during investigations into the Al Qaeda and Taliban network. As a result, on October 16, 2003, the US Department of Treasury announced that it was designating Dawood Ibrahim, under Executive Order 13224, a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist". Investigators had found that Ibrahim had been sharing his smuggling routes and infrastructure with Al Qaeda and had been funding the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

In India, Dawood's men have been involved in numerous crimes including contract killings, murder, land-grabbing, extortion, drug-running and the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. The gang's nexus with terrorists operating in Kashmir was first established when, on August 9, 1998, the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police eliminated the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen's (HM) top Kashmir Valley 'commander', Ali Mohammad Dar, alias Burhanuddin Hijazi. According to Frontline's Praveen Swami, hundreds of sheets of hand-written notes meant for Syed Salahuddin (the Hizb's 'Supreme Commander', based in Pakistan), were recovered from Dar's temporary hideout in Srinagar. One of the note stated: "Ways and means should be found to launch the movement in India on (a) priority basis." He suggested that a broad linkage be established with the Dubai underworld. "Kingpins of the underworld (should) be contacted to have the weapons and ammunition launched for us through other possible ways." "A cell of three persons" would work "to develop relations with underworld beings like Dawood Ibrahim and trying to have a project of counterfeit currency."

Each deportation of a high-profile Dawood lieutenant is, consequently, seen as a significant step towards bludgeoning the criminal-terrorist-network into submission.

Over the past two years, a noteworthy 'who's who' of the Mumbai underworld have been deported into India. The most prominent among these include Dawood Ibrahim's assistants, Riyaz Siddique and Raju Sharma (deported on May 29, 2003); Mustaffa Mohammed Umar Dossa alias Majnu Sheth (deported on March 19, 2003); Dawood's younger brother Iqbal Sheikh Kaskar, and Ejaz Pathan, a 1993 Mumbai serial blast accused (deported on February 19, 2003); Mohammed Altaf, accused in the December 2, 2002, bus blast in Ghatkopar, Mumbai (deported on January 26, 2003); Muthappa Rai, a Dawood Ibrahim aide (deported on May 30, 2002); and Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik, main accused in the American Center shootout in Kolkata (deported on February 9, 2002). Recently, the Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Satya Pal Singh (now transferred), disclosed that Iqbal Mirchi, another one of Dawood Ibrahim's trusted lieutenants, had been detained by enforcement agencies in the United States and is likely to be deported soon. The most recent deportation from Dubai has been that of Dawood-aide Tariq Parveen, on July 19, 2004. Parveen faces charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA) in connection with the Sara-Sahara Shopping Complex land grab case, in which Dawood's youngest brother Iqbal Kaskar has already been charge-sheeted.

But the extraditions to India may just be the beginnings of a new set of problems for authorities here, as the process of securing convictions for these criminals is proving far more difficult than securing their arrests. Given India's extraordinarily sluggish judicial system, poor investigative mechanisms, and the ubiquitous and persistent threat of organized criminal groups, convictions in even the most high profile cases have been elusive.

Thus, on August 7, 2003, a Sessions Court in Mumbai discharged Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood Ibrahim's younger brother, in a case pertaining to the murder of a Customs informant for 'want of evidence', leaving the sibling now charged only in a case relating to a relatively minor land-grabbing offence.

In another appalling incident that highlights the incompetence of the police authorities, another two deported criminals walked free as a result of the Police's failure to produce the evidence it had collected. Raju Chikna alias Rajkumar Ramdas Sharma, a key member of the Dawood gang, and wanted for kidnapping and murder of a rival, was deported on May 29, 2003, from Dubai. Evidence against Chikna included five tapes recording the conspiracy to murder being plotted by Chikna, Dawood, and Chhota Rajan. The Tapes were turned over to Crime Branch, but the Court was later informed that the former ''could not find the tapes''. Chikna walked free on May 11, 2004, and has apparently flown back to Dubai to rejoin his trade.

Riyaz Ahmed Siddiqui, wanted for two murders, was deported on May 29, 2003 from Dubai. The evidence against him comprised solely of the First Information Report (FIR) filed against him, as the case papers were 'missing', as were witness statements. Siddiqui was released on a bail of Rupees 25,000 in September 2003.

Charges against Saquib Nachen, a key accused in the Mumbai blasts of 2002-2003, and eight others under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), were dropped for the first Ghatkopar Blast that took place in a bus in the Mumbai suburb on December 2, 2002. Though police claimed he was the main conspirator, there was no material evidence on record. [Nachen remains under detention with charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) for his involvement in three other blasts in 2003].

On April 17, 2004, Muthappa Rai, was set free from a Bangalore jail, two years after he was deported from Dubai, following his acquittal by a court in the last of the nine cases against him. The Court acquitted Rai and five others on April 13, 2004, in a case relating to the murder of a real estate agent in Bangalore three years earlier, and held that the prosecution had 'failed to prove charges'.

Abu Salem's extradition has additional complications, and there is little possibility of his eventually facing condign punishment for his outrageous crimes. The Lisbon High Court's extradition order comes with a rider: the Court has ordered that Salem can only be tried for minor offences such as passport forgery and possession of illegal weapons in India. Even if he chooses to plead guilty, Salem could walk free in a few years, after serving the maximum possible sentences for these offences concurrently.

The greatest embarrassment of the future may well be Dawood Ibrahim himself. Ibrahim figures prominently on the famous 'List of 20' handed over by the Government of India to Pakistan, allegedly of terrorists currently enjoying safe haven in that country. The predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee regime at Delhi had led a shrill propaganda campaign - before an abruptly initiated 'peace process' catalyzed a deafening silence on the issue - on the importance of the arrest and deportation of the terrorists on this 'List of 20', at one time, predicating any possibility of negotiations with Pakistan on the fulfillment of this demand, among others. The problem, however, is that the Mumbai police apparently does not have the case papers of the various crimes personally committed by Dawood Ibrahim. In the 1993 bomb blasts case, which is the 'strongest' case against Ibrahim, his role is that of a 'conspirator', and it is well known that the charge of conspiracy is rarely proved in India, since case is usually based on circumstantial evidence. In all the cases registered against Ibrahim after 1983, including the 1993 serial blasts case, Ibrahim is accused only as a conspirator, with no direct evidence against him. On the other hand, of the six cases registered against him before 1983, the case papers and crime registers are 'not available' in five. The sixth one is a case of dacoity registered with the Crime Branch in 1974 - the oldest pending case against Ibrahim - in which he was acquitted by the Bombay High Court in 1985. No case has been registered against Ibrahim since 2001.

It would, consequently, be no surprise in the future, if we see Dawood walking in through the International Airport in Mumbai, and, possibly after a brief entanglement with the judiciary, onwards to freedom, and to recover his vast organized criminal empire and its illegal wealth.

The recent and increasingly frequent deportation of wanted criminals to India is definitely a remarkable development; but a combination of ground realties in the country may turn this apparent blessing into a damning indictment of our languid justice apparatus.

Courtesy: South Asia Terrorism Portal

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