8 months since I spoke to Dawood: Witness

Mumbai: An uncle of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s wife appeared before a special MCOCA court Wednesday as a witness in the case where gutkha company owner Jagdishprasad Mohanlal Joshi and Rasiklal Manikchand Dhariwal (now deceased) were accused of helping Dawood’s brother Anees set up a gutkha factory in Karachi, Pakistan.

The witness told the court that his last contact with Dawood was around eight months ago and that he had stayed at Dawood’s residence in Pakistan more than a decade ago.

Salim Shaikh (71) said that Dawood’s wife Mehjabeen was his elder brother’s daughter. He further told the court that his own wife’s maternal uncle Wahiduddin was residing in Karachi in Pakistan and that in 2004-05, he had gone to Pakistan to see him because the latter was ill.

The witness further stated before special Judge S.M. Bhosale that Jamiruddin Ansari alias Jumbo, an accused in this case, was known to him at that time and Jumbo had given him luggage to deliver it to Anees Ibrahim, brother of Dawood, in Karachi. Jumbo had told him that the luggage comprised household items. According to the witness, when he told Jumbo that he was already carrying his own luggage, Jumbo allegedly threatened him following which, he carried the luggage to Pakistan.

As per the witness statement before the court, the customs officers had stopped him at Karachi airport and asked him to pay customs duty for his luggage but he did not have the money so they detained him until a person reached there and took him to the bungalow of Dawood Ibrahim located at Clifton in Karachi.

According to the witness, he had no knowledge of the contents of the packet given to him by Jumbo and it was the accused who got the packet cleared in customs.

The witness further told the court that he stayed in Dawood’s residence in Karachi for around a month but never met Anees.