Dawood's Mentor

by S. Hussain Zaidi

  Dawood’s reply was a shocker, ‘Agar mujhe do mein se kisi ek ki baat manni padi, toh main hamesha aap ki baat manoonga, aur bhai ko mana loonga (If I have to choose between Sabir and you, then I will always give preference to you and convince Sabir to follow suit).’ Khalid was totally floored at this humility and affection shown by Dawood. There was no reason for him to hesitate.

  Khalid immediately gave his consent and Dawood smiled. Khalid rose from the table and gave a bear hug to a much shorter and thinner Dawood, almost lifting him off his feet. It was a genuine and sincere embrace that only a Pathan could give with all his intensity and fervour.

  Perhaps Khalid interpreted the whole situation in a positive sense. He presumed that Dawood, who had been a fan and well-wisher so far, now wanted to take the relationship to the next level and work as business partners. Khalid, in all his naivety, attributed this offer of a business alliance to Dawood’s innate nobility and strength of character.

  But Khalid did not know that his protégé, Dawood, had slowly become a hardcore businessman, with a focus only on multiplying his profits. He was not a hapless teenager any more. The boy had now developed fangs and was ready to claw his way to the top of the pile. At this juncture, Dawood was clearly looking for friends with benefits, a concept that Bombay’s socialites figured out only much later—Dawood had already perfected this idea in the 1970s. He had done his calculations clearly and realized that Khalid’s association would only enhance his profits. Khalid had amazing contacts in Dubai and knew the logistics of the business so well that he would monitor the gold’s movement from coast to coast, making Dawood a millionaire in no time.

  Another factor that worked for Dawood was the timing. Lady Luck seemed to always be on his side. It was the era of the Emergency and most smugglers were behind bars. Haji Mastan, Yusuf Patel and several others had been incarcerated by Indira Gandhi. Dawood, who had always secretly nursed a desire to overtake Mastan’s legendary reign, decided that this was the most opportune time to accelerate his efforts and make inroads into Mastan’s close-knit group of buyers and business associates.

  Mastan had managed to reach the top only because he had Arab patrons who staked their money on gold smuggling for him. Other smugglers worked with Pakistani syndicates who always preferred Karachi buyers. Khalid was the only man who had developed solid bonds with the Arabs, his connections with the Galadari brothers being well known. Dawood knew that the Galadaris trusted Khalid and that this friendship could be exploited to further his business interests.

  Dawood needed Khalid to persuade the Galadaris to become their main partner in Dubai.

  18

  The Five-Man Army

  Even before the muezzin climbed atop the minaret of a famous British-era masjid in south Bombay, the faithful were already walking towards the mosque in anticipation of the azan, the mandatory call for prayer of the namaz-e-asr. Muslims from the neighbouring shops, hotels, offices and residences began converging.

  Suddenly, a white Fiat drew up outside the masjid. Two out of the five men who emerged were in their twenties while the other three were in their early thirties. All five tied a handkerchief to cover their heads as they walked resolutely towards the Hujra Mohalla Masjid.

  The old-timers of the area and the skullcap- and handkerchief-wearing worshippers were taken aback when they saw the occupants of the car. These were no men of God. Their notoriety preceded them. They were the black sheep of the area. Men who lived by the sword and who dared anybody to question them.

  The men, of course, were not oblivious to the effect they had on the bystanders. Some of them who knew these men in passing threw them a hurried salaam before slipping away to another corner of the masjid, away from them. Once inside the masjid, they went to the wet wudu area in the large prayer hall for the pre-namaz ablutions. And then they prayed together, much to the astonishment of the onlookers, who had presumed the men had walked in to settle scores with someone. After finishing their prayers, the group retreated to a corner of the mosque with a copy of the Holy Quran in their hands. In a solemn and spiritual gesture, all of them placed their hands on the cover of the Quran, as if taking an oath. ‘We will watch out for each other and never betray each other,’ they declared solemnly in unison.

  These five men were among the city’s most notorious gangsters. Dawood Ibrahim, Sabir Ibrahim, Khalid Pehelwan and two other toughies known as Anjum Sayed and Lal Khan Pathan.

  They had just watched the 1969 Hollywood cult classic The Five-Man Army. It was the story of five reluctant heroes helping the Mexican Revolution by robbing a gold consignment from a train. For Dawood and his team the takeaway was ‘United we stand, divided we fall,’ hence the little detour to the masjid for some good old-fashioned spiritual affirmation. The ringside viewers outside the mosque, who were initially taken aback at this newfound love for God, had no idea that these five were actually taking an oath to be more violent and greedy in their pursuit of supremacy among the Bombay mafia.

  The Dawood–Sabir gang had crystallized its plans to set up the most powerful smuggling syndicate in the city. It was Khalid’s idea to form a new group, a syndicate that gave birth to the idea of a five-man army. Khalid had told them that, henceforth, smuggling would be properly regulated and the whole process, right from the procurement, acquisition, supply and distribution of smuggled contraband would be handled the way respected blue-chip companies functioned.

  This was a major step towards the corporatization of smuggling. The plan was to involve other ganglords in the area and make them a part of the syndicate. Most of the gold financers and smugglers signed up and promised to be loyal and committed to it, much like the functioning of the bushido, the code of conduct of the Japanese samurai warriors.

  The proposition was simple: anyone could invest money in smuggling; they would be entitled to keep 50 per cent of the profits while also contributing 50 per cent to the coffers of the syndicate. The exchequer would finance the smoothening of the logistics—in other words, grease the palms of the law-enforcement agencies like the police and the customs department. The investors were happy that they were not personally exposed in any way to the law and happily contributed their profits to the syndicate because the returns were so high. Times were tough for them, with Indira Gandhi cracking down on black marketeers by imposing the Emergency. They were afraid of midnight raids on their black money and were happy to give it away to the Dawood–Sabir gang to invest it for them.

  Between 1975 and 1977, the Bombay mafia was in a tumult. The big fish—Haji Mastan, Karim Lala and Yusuf Patel—were all biding their time in the Arthur Road Jail along with a lot of prominent political personalities. But Bombay was no exception, jails all over India were overflowing with both mafia members and political detenues and other dissenters. But among the middle class in Bombay, there was a huge sense of relief about the arrest of the black marketeers, shady businessmen and ganglords.

  People were being charged either under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) or the National Security Act (NSA). MISA was a newly promulgated national law in 1971, and was fortified in 1974, which gave sweeping powers to the government and no reprieve to the detenue. Under the law, any accused could be detained without the framing of formal charges against them and be thrown into jail without stringent procedures that are normally followed under the IPC.

  The smugglers and the Bombay mafia were quaking in their shoes when Indira Gandhi announced in Parliament her plans to confiscate smugglers’ properties. This had never happened before. The Bombay mafia, which had enjoyed a free run and an unhindered growth graph, suddenly seemed to have struck a fatal iceberg. They could not figure out what hit them.

  While the big fish were caught early on, the smaller ones also got entangled, but at a later stage. For a while, Dawood Ibrahim, Varadarajan Mudaliar and Arun Gawli also became trapped under the NSA.

  A report prepared by the then Bombay police commissioner, S.V. Tankiwala, submitted to the Ministry of Home Aff
airs claimed, ‘As many as 288 smugglers including Haji Mastan and Yusuf Patel were detained and the property of over 177 smugglers were attached.’

  Mastan and his cronies tried hiring the most expensive legal luminaries like Ram Jethmalani but Indira Gandhi was relentless. The government also slapped the COFEPOSA Act on Mastan and his ilk. When Mastan and Patel walked out as free men, the battering they had received from the government had done them a world of good! They gave up smuggling and lived a reformed life.

  Even if they had intended to pursue smuggling, they found that in twenty-one months their businesses were in a shambles. Everybody had to start from scratch, as even the local moneybags were now wary. The Emergency had discouraged a lot of reckless businessmen from dubious deals.

  Dawood knew that the time was ripe for him to establish his mafia empire, especially on a level playing field. His competition was almost non-existent. The new government, under a new dispensation, was trying to woo the masses.

  Gold smuggling was flourishing during the term of the then prime minister Morarji Desai. The post-Emergency era, especially the year 1978, was regarded as a flourishing time for criminals. Dawood was the first to capitalize on this wave.

  His reunion with Khalid augured well for him. He knew that Khalid was a potential gold mine, and shook his head and smiled every time he thought of how Bashu Dada could be so stupid as to not recognize and play on Khalid’s strengths.

  Khalid had never felt as much at home as he did with Dawood. The boy was young, full of life and very bright. He was also fearless and thought much ahead of his times. He made Khalid think on his feet and brought out the best in him. With Bashu, Khalid never knew where he stood in the equation despite having given so much to the gang. But with Dawood he felt like an insider. Dawood made him feel special. There was no insecurity like there was with Bashu. Khalid knew that his association with Dawood would take smuggling to new heights in Bombay.

  Khalid immediately made a trip to Dubai and touched base with his brotherlike business partner Abdul Wahab Galadari, who was equally excited to meet Khalid after such a long hiatus.

  A lot had happened in Galadari’s life too. He had just split from his brothers and had gone on to establish his own empire, which was in direct competition with that of his estranged siblings.

  He started a newspaper, Gulf News, to compete with his brothers’ Khaleej Times. If his brothers had their Intercontinental Hotels, he had Hyatt Regency. Rahim and Latif owned the Dubai Bank, Wahab established the Union Bank of the Middle East. He also began investing in London and Singapore, becoming the third-largest Arab investor in Singapore. Wahab wanted to expand his business further in Southeast Asian countries.

  Despite his raging ambitions, Wahab could not own businesses in India or invest in any financial enterprise in the country. In fact, the gold king and dollar billionaire, with worldwide clout and influence, had endured a run-in with the Indian government, who had blacklisted his brothers and him for more than a decade.

  After the Emergency was recalled in March 1977, the three Galadaris were declared proclaimed offenders by the Indian government on 3 August 1977 under Section 83 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which deals with the attachment of the properties of fugitives.

  The Galadaris’ ancestral wealth included apartments and various other properties in Colaba and Cuffe Parade. The youngest brother, Latif, had also attended schools in Bombay. Wahab loved the city and was very fond of India. It was the city and country that had given him his wealth. He knew her seas and her coasts.

  As far back as the early 1960s, Wahab had established a smooth smuggling link between Dubai and Bombay and had frequently begun visiting the city through motorboats and dhows along with huge consignments of smuggled gold. In fact, the DRI had no clue of the involvement of a Dubai sheikh in such brazen gold-smuggling expeditions on the Bombay coastline until 1964.

  When the DRI sleuths intercepted a dhow off the Ratnagiri coast carrying over 120 kg gold worth over Rs 10 lakh, they discovered that it belonged to Wahab, who was already in Bombay to receive the consignment. The DRI officers immediately arrested Wahab along with twenty-three others, including three customs officers, but Wahab managed to jump bail, sneaked out of Bombay and escaped to Dubai. Wahab was barely twenty-four years old then.

  Once on Wahab’s trail, the DRI began diligently chasing the Galadari brothers. Wahab was accused in several smuggling cases, including for landing gold at Mafatlal Park in Cuffe Parade in south Bombay and on the Murud coast near Alibag. All these consignments ranged from 120 to over 200 kg, in gold biscuits, and were due to be received at various landing spots along the Ratnagiri coastline. In one case in 1968, Wahab and thirty-eight others were indicted by a customs officer called J.S. Wagh for smuggling over 1000 kg of gold through the Kashid coast in Alibag.

  The Indian government had piled up cases against all the Galadaris and men from the syndicate under the simple premise of respondeat superior (which in Latin means ‘let the master answer’). As per the doctrine, Abdul would be held responsible for all the smuggling cases even if his brothers or other syndicate members were involved in it. These and other such cases against the Galadari brothers had rendered them persona non grata in India, while they had totally clean records everywhere else in the world. No country or agencies had dared or bothered to declare them wanted, it is not exactly known whether this was because of their influence or affluence.

  India Today had reported, ‘All the brothers had been proclaimed offenders in India in 1977 after the government failed to bring them to trial on charges of smuggling gold into India while smuggling silver out of the country.’

  The DRI wanted the Galadari brothers to be prosecuted in a trial court and hence the 1977 proclamation order was a big feather in their cap. The agency was aware that it would not be possible to extradite them from Dubai given their clout and connections, but at least the Galadaris would not be able to flit in and out of the country at whim.

  Wahab was dismayed by the court’s proclamation order against him and his brothers. He was thrilled to see Khalid at a time when he was contemplating his next course of action in India. Khalid told him he wanted to pick up from where he had left off five years ago, and Wahab welcomed Khalid’s decision. He was, after all, the most influential gold dealer in the UAE despite an existing cabal of Pakistani smugglers in the region.

  During the conversation, Wahab realized that Khalid had become much wiser and pragmatic and in a position to take decisions all by himself without the sword of Damocles in the form of Bashu looming over his head.

  The deal they struck was simple and lucrative for all the parties concerned. Wahab would give them gold consignments on the Dubai coast and Khalid would have to organize the launch and its safe passage to Bombay’s shores. Once they transported the gold to Indian markets, it would be the responsibility of the Dawood–Sabir gang to distribute and sell the gold. Wahab instantly liked the proposal and shook hands with Khalid, green-lighting the agreement.

  With Wahab’s support, Khalid and Dawood began their second innings in gold smuggling in Bombay. Right from the word go, the venture was a huge success. The duo’s hunger and hunger for profits and power kept them on their toes and facilitated the continuous rolling of gold and silver landings into their turf.

  With this megacorporation of smugglers in place, Khalid now focused his attention on the fortification of the Dawood gang. He realized that the Dawood–Sabir gang only had Muslims and no Hindus.

  Khalid’s childhood in Madhya Pradesh and the friendships he had forged during his college and wrestling days with Hindus had given him a progressive and secular outlook in life. His interactions with Hindus made him stand apart from other Muslims who tended to be insular. It was an absolutely new and unheard-of philosophy in the Bombay mafia. A Muslim Pathan asking his fellow Muslim brethren to include Hindu men in the gang to make the gang stronger and lend it character. Dawood, who never differed with Khalid, immediately agreed to his suggesti
on.

  To walk the talk, Khalid began hiring Hindu boys in the gang. Initially, he got in touch with some of his Hindu friends in Bhopal and Harda and recruited them. The lure of lucre and Khalid’s charisma was the main draw. Khalid’s friends began trooping into Bombay. Subsequently, Khalid also recruited local Maharashtrian boys into the gang. With the admission of Hindu men in the conglomerate, which included Rama Naik, Babu Reshim, Philips Pandhare, Ashok Joshi, Satish Raje and others, the Dawood gang became formidable. The gang structure was now secular and had become a major force to reckon with in the city. The city’s moneybags like Rashid Arba and other members of the syndicate were satisfied as everyone was making a decent profit. But not all people can be kept happy all the time. The Pathans, who included Karim Lala, Rahim Lala, Samad Khan, Amirzada and Alamzeb, were quite resentful of Dawood’s success and growth.

  For them the biggest fly in the ointment was Khalid, a Pathan to boot, one of their own, who stood like an indestructible wall, shielding Dawood from them.

  They knew that if they wanted to ambush Dawood, they would have to demolish the wall first.

  19

  An Undercover Wedding

  A wedding function without the groom in attendance can upset the calmest fathers-in-law-to-be. The bride’s family was visibly nervous, and this particular father was doubly anxious because the groom had suddenly requested a change in venue. The shamiana on the terrace had all the required decorations for a wedding—twinkling fairly lights in different colours, streamers and lots of tube-lights to brighten the place. The aluminium folding chairs were neatly arranged and the dastarkhwan (an ornate spread on which food is served in Muslim gatherings) was a long row of slender tables arranged vertically with a plastic sheet on top.