"My Conversations With Dawood Ibrahim" continues...

Meanwhile, one of my superiors, for reasons best known to him, asked me to stop communicating with D. Perhaps my senior was wary of Indian intelligence agencies overhearing the ongoing dialogue and taking objection to my transgressing their turf. The unwritten code between federal agencies in India is that the CBI sticks to investigation while the intelligence agencies carry out covert operations. My superior had worked in one such organization for several years and perhaps he felt such ‘adventurism’ is best left to the other agencies. Be that as it may, that was the end of my tete-a-tete with Dawood Ibrahim.

Manish Lala was not charged by us as there was no evidence against him in our case. He was returned to Arthur Road Jail and was soon out on bail as the Bombay Police didn’t charge him either in the JJ Hospital Shootout Case. It was in connection with this case that he had surrendered.

With D-company in disarray and his big bosses Dawood and Anees hiding in Karachi, Manish was left with no one to give legal advice to. He distanced himself from the underworld and began dabbling in stocks. He created an office of sorts at 65, Old Oriental Building, MG Road in Fort area of South Mumbai. Little did he know that he was on the radar of Chota Rajan, friend-turned-foe of Dawood. Once Dawood’s right hand and most trusted lieutenant, Rajan had become a thorn in the flesh of D-company’s other aspiring bigwigs like Chota Shakeel, Sunil Sawant and Sharad Shetty. Dawood’s over-dependence on Chota Rajan had made him the object of their common envy. They teamed together to poison D’s ears and gradually succeeded in getting him alienated from Rajan. Following the March 1993 serial blasts in Bombay, D-company split vertically on communal lines and Rajan bid a bitter adieu to his old master. He always had trusted boys of his own, who took orders from him alone, to form his own breakaway gang.

To be continued...