Author: S Hussain Zaidi
Publication: Sify News
Date: June 30, 2004
URL: http://headlines.sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13510386&headline=Chhota~Shakeel~ki~moti~girlfriend
Rubina Siraj Sayyed (37) was best
known for her mehendi patterns. But the police saw her underworld designs
too.
A top beautician from south Mumbai
who got called to all prominent Muslim weddings for her expensive yet elegant
beauty treatments, Rubina was recently picked up by Mumbai police for managing
Dawood henchman Chhota Shakeel's activities in the city.
She has been booked under the Maharashtra
Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Rubina was for the last one year
taking instructions from Shakeel aide Fahim Mach Mach and liaising with
lawyers, looking after all the needs of Shakeel gangsters who are in jail
and handling financial affairs of all gang members between south Mumbai
and Jogeshwari.
"At last count, she was looking
after 25 families of men affiliated to the Shakeel gang and distributed
Rs 1.5 lakh among them every month, apart from making payments to legal
luminaries," said deputy commissioner of police, detection, Dhananjay Kamlakar.
Rubina's story is one of overweening
ambition. As a leading beautician, she earned more than what her civil
contractor husband Siraj Sayyed did and was a regular income-tax payer.
However, she wanted to join politics
and become a corporator. Mother of two teenagers, she entered gangland
thinking that her position there would help her become a councillor.
Rubina's brother-in-law Obaid Sayed,
a Shakeel aide, was arrested in 2002 in the Sharif Tunda murder case and
lodged in Arthur Road jail.
When she began visiting Obaid regularly
in jail and in the courts, he conveyed some messages to Shakeel through
her. At this point, the gang made her an offer she liked.
"She presumed that by working for
the gangsters, she would gain clout and power, would be able to contest
civic elections and become a corporator," said assistant commissioner of
police Sanjay Singh Yenpure.
With her clout grew her affluence.
While earlier she had a two-wheeler, she now bought a car for her frequent
trips to Arthur Road jail and Thane jail.
Her fair complexion earned her the
nickname 'heroine' from Fahim, while those for whom she was boss called
her 'Pathan' because of her burly physique and brusque manners.
Though active for over a year, she
kept the crime branch at bay. Good with computers and English despite being
a college dropout, she even evaded the police's electronic surveillance.
The crime branch got to know of
her after one of Shakeel's men, Uday Pawar alias Pankaj, got in touch with
her. Since late last year, Pankaj had been demanding Rs 50 lakh from a
film distributor and issuing threats to him. When the distributor agreed
to pay Rs 10 lakh, Pankaj called Rubina to "report" to her. The police
were then listening.
They soon began tracking Rubina's
movements and calls. In the last four months, police recorded 26 conversations
between Rubina, Fahim and Shakeel.
But unlike the J W Singh and Bharat
Shah cases, the crime branch will not make the transcripts the basis of
its First Information Report (FIR). After this four-month watch, police
picked her up recently.
In 2002, the crime branch had arrested
Shamim Mirza alias Mrs Paul, a Shakeel aide. Police had then believed hers
to be an isolated case but with Rubina's arrest, they feel Shakeel has
more such women working for him.
"We suspect that in Mumbai and Thane
alone, there must be four to five such women working for the Shakeel gang
and taking instructions from Fahim," joint commissioner of police, crime,
Dr Satyapal Singh said.
