MUMBAI, Mar 9:
The arrest of Mohammed Farooq, alias Farooq Takla, could have a bearing on the gutkha case in which some businessman were accused of supplying machinery to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anees for a gutkha plant in Pakistan, a senior official said.
Takla is an absconder in the gutkha case which is being heard by a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court here, police officials said.
Takla was yesterday arrested from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport by the CBI after he arrived from Dubai.
Police said that Takla’s role in the gutkha case had cropped up during the confessional statement of another accused Jamiruddin Ansari alias Jumbo in 2004.
During Jumbo’s confessional statement in the gutkha case, Farooq Takla’s name had surfaced, Suresh Walishetty, retired Assistant Commissioner of Police said.
The team of ACP Walishetty and slain encounter specialist police inspector Vijay Salaskar had arrested Jumbo.
In his statement, Jumbo had told police that he was present in a meeting called to settle a dispute between gutkha barons Rasiklal Dhariwal and J M Joshi in the presence of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
Jumbo had told police that Ibrahim had asked Dhariwal to pay Rs 11 crore to Joshi to settle the matter.
His confession stated that post the settlement, Joshi had allegedly arranged for the setting up of a gutkha plant in Karachi for Ibrahim’s’s brother Anees.
The machinery was sent from Nhava Sheva port to Dubai where Farooq Takla took receipt of the consignment in the name of “Ali Asgar Company” and then forwarded it to Karachi, Walishetty said.
The retired ACP said that Takla may be arrested in the gutkha case by the CBI as the case was transferred to the agency to probe Dawood and Anees Ibrahim’s gutkha business.
Dhariwal died in October last year. (PTI)
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