Author: K.V. Subramanya
Publication: The Hindu
Date: May 18, 2002
Bangalore's underworld don, Muthappa
Rai, who has been detained by the Dubai Police along with aides of the
Pakistan-based mafia lord, Dawood Ibrahim, planned serial explosions in
government and commercial hubs in Gujarat.
The Dawood Ibrahim gang's plot to
carry out explosions in Gujarat came to light recently after telephone
calls from Dubai were tracked by the sleuths of the Intelligence Bureau
(IB) in Ahmedabad.
According to a classified report
the IB recently sent to the Union Home Ministry, the Cabinet Secretariat,
and State governments, Dawood Ibrahim's brother, Anees Ibrahim, and his
aides, Muthappa Rai, Tiger Memon, Salim Ghazi, and Aziz Tunga, held a meeting
in Dubai in the first week of March 2002.
The gangsters plotted serial explosions
in strife-torn Gujarat and planned to target top police and government
functionaries. They hired local gangsters in Bhuj and Ahmedabad to carry
out their plan, the report says.
According to the report, on Dawood's
instruction, Anees flew from Islamabad to the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
on March 3, and contacted Haji Ismail of Gujarat, in Dubai, to execute
the plan. Haji is a co-accused in the Mumbai serial blasts.
After Aftab Ansari, who is accused
of masterminding the attack on American Center in Kolkata and kidnapping
the shoe baron, Parta Roy Burman, was deported from Dubai in February 2002,
all the aides of Dawood Ibrahim fled Dubai.
In the first week of March, Muthappa
Rai returned to Dubai from Muscat. Tiger Memon and Salim Ghazi, who were
in Saudi Arabia, and Aziz Tunga, who was in the U.S., returned to the UAE,
the report says. Muthappa Rai was detained in Dubai on Monday on a charge
of possessing a fake Muscat passport.
It is said Dawood was upset over
the attack on minorities by pro-Hindu organisations in Gujarat, and the
"D-company" plotted to carry out serial explosions, the report notes.
The involvement of Muthappa Rai
in the anti-national activities planned by Dawood's gang has come as a
surprise to many here.
