"Conversations With Dawood Ibrahim" continues...

After painstaking work, a flat in Gagan Vihar, East Delhi was located and four other members of Dawood’s gang namely Subhash Singh Thakur, Bhai Thakur, Chandrakant Patil and Paresh Desai were arrested. A large consignment of weapons and ammunition was discovered when their premises were searched.

Their arrest was to set off a chain of incidents along a circuitous route eventually leading to my conversations with the ‘Big Boss of Bombay Gangland’. I would attempt to take the readers through these disparate events as seamlessly as possible.
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Since my last assignment before I had moved on deputation to the CBI was as Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Delhi, Inspector Prithvi Singh and his superiors were aware that I was dealing with Dawood and his gang in my new job. They informed me of the arrests and, with the little knowledge that I had acquired on Bombay’s gangland, I realized the significance of the catch. The cases registered by the Delhi Police against the gangsters were under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (commonly referred to as TADA). On a reference from us in the CBI, the TADA cases were transferred to the Special Task Force, CBI by the Government of India since the arrested men were linked to Dawood, the prime accused in Bombay Bomb Blast cases of 1993. The STF was a newly
created Branch tasked with investigating the serial Bombay bomb blast cases of 1993.

On August 8, 1993 Subhash Singh Thakur, Bhai Thakur, Shyam Kishore Garikapatti, Chandra Kant Patil and Paresh Desai were handed over to us in the Special Task Force of CBI. We registered a case and began interrogating them. They, particularly
Subhash Singh Thakur and Bhai Thakur, were veritable storehouses of information on Dawood
Ibrahim and the manner in which his gang functioned. But, before I proceed further with this story, it would be necessary to let the readers have pen-pictures of the five ‘gentlemen’ who were with us.

To be continued...