CBI sends judicial request, seeks info on Dawood’s Gutka biz

New Delhi: CBI has sent a judicial request to Pakistan seeking information about underworld don Dawood Ibrahim‘s alleged Gutka business set up there with help from Indian businessmen after filing a charge sheet against the most wanted terrorist.

CBI sources said Letter Rogatory, a judicial request to get information, have been dispatched to Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates seeking details of Dawood’s Gutkha business which is purportedly run by his brother Anees Ibrahim.

Recently, CBI has filed a supplementary charge sheeted 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 Gutka plant at Hyderabad in Sindh province of Pakistan.
The case was investigated by Mumbai Police on the

complaints of Mustafa Kabira where it was alleged that between February to May, 2002 he was approached procure Gutka pouch packaging machine worth Rs 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 Gutka and Dhariwal of Manichand Gutka also came to light.

The case was taken up by CBI on the request of 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, the sources said.

It is alleged Dhariwal used to supply Gutka, 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, the sources said.

In its supplementary charge sheet CBI alleged, undeterred by this, Joshi met Anees Ibrahim to settle dispute at Karachi in Sindh province of Pakistan, the sources said.

After the intervention of Dawood and Anees, long standing financial dispute was settled wherein Dhariwal allegedly gave some money to Joshi to receive the secret formulation of Gutka from him, the sources said.

Joshi also provided all the help to Dawood to set up a gutka factory in Hyderabad in Sindh province in Pakistan including the kidnapping of an Indian to work there to help them manufacture and package the gutka there.

The 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 initial charge sheet.

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.

PTI