New Delhi, May 21 – In April end, then Finance Minister P Chidambaram had asked Narendra Modi: “What’s your plan to bring back Dawood Ibrahim?” Reacting sharply to then Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s comment to media that the government was working closely with the FBI to bring back fugitive underworld kingpin, PM-elect Narendra Modi had said the issue was not a matter to be discussed openly.
“Did the US hold a press conference before carrying out the Abbottabad raid?” he had said referring to the killing of Osama bin Laden by the US forces. Now, with Modi in the driver’s seat, the heat is back on the D-Company. According to a report in DNA, Dawood has relocated himself to an unknown location close to the Af-Pak border, which is under the Taliban, from his earlier known base in Karachi.
The report said the don feared a commando-type operation and is believed to have shifted his base to a remote corner. He has also got the ISI to beef up his security, it added. The report quoted an intelligence report as saying, “With Modi coming to power, he is mortally afraid.”
The underworld don had recently figured in the high-octane poll campaign when Shinde dropped a hint that the government was working to bring him back. Shinde was in for a huge embarrassment when RK Singh, the then Union home secretary who later joined the BJP, said he had no information about any such move.
Reacting to Modi’s criticism of Shinde, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had hit back at the Gujarat Chief Minister asking about his plan to bring the fugitive don back. “How do you get a person who is being protected by another government? We can’t indulge in a clandestine activity. How does Modi plan to do this?” he asked. (Read: What is Narendra Modi’s plan to bring Dawood Ibrahim back, asks Chidambaram )
The underworld kingpin is believed by security agencies to live in Karachi. However, in an exclusive interview with Mail Today, fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan said Dawood lived in the Gulf region now contrary to what Indian Intelligence believes.
-INDIA TODAY
