"My Conversations With Dawood Ibrahim" continues...

However, no one went to the police to report the
murders. Almost a year later, on January 3, 1992 the incident came to light and the police swung into action. Bhai Thakur had to flee to Dubai and seek refuge with Dawood. Thereafter, he was
on the run and shuttled between Dubai, Kathmandu and Delhi with his friend Subhash Thakur until their arrest in Delhi on July 23, 1993.

Chandrakant Patil, a small-time property dealer from Vasai, prospered in his real estate business under Bhai Thakur’s patronage. Patil acquired disputed properties and came to adverse notice of the local police on two occasions in 1987. He was part of Bhai Thakur’s army when it terrorized villagers of Wadrai, killing three of them. Ever since the incident came to light in January, 1992, he too was on the run. Illicit relations with a young prostitute Rajani of East Delhi made him choose Delhi as his hiding place. He bought a flat in Gagan Vihar as a safe- house for himself, not far from Ganesh Nagar Extension where he acquired another property for Rajani and her family. Occasionally, Bhai Thakur and Subhash Thakur used Patil’s flat as a transit point and a hideout. It was here that they were eventually trapped by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch.

Paresh Desai, the fifth mobster ensnared, was Bhai Thakur’s driver and Man Friday. He accompanied his master on all his missions, including the Wadrai rampage.

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Their interrogation further revealed that the D-company operated in the typical mould
of an organized criminal group with a don at the top, and a hierarchical structure of operatives
under him. Since none of us in the STF of CBI had served in Bombay, our knowledge of its
underworld was either non-existent or at best rudimentary. Talking to these ‘gentlemen’ gave us an invaluable insight into the working of the Dawood Ibrahim gang and its leading ‘luminaries’. Two names which figured often were: Ahmed Mansur (handling the gang’s hawala business) and Manish Lala (D’s ‘Law Minister’).

To be continued...