Criminal Profiles: Chota Shakeel aka Mohammed Shakeel Babu Miyan Shaikh

India Crime News Desk

• Chhota Shakeel is Mumbai underworld don and 2^nd in command of the criminal gang D-Company.
• Shakeel joined the D-Company in 1988 under the mafia boss Dawood Ibrahim.
• Shakeel is reportedly responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the D-Company.
• Shakeel is also a most-wanted men in India after his alleged participation in the 12^th March 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai.
• He is also declared wanted by the USA government for international drug trafficking.
• In January 2017, Shakeel was reported dead by multiple sources. This all turned out a hoax, spreader by Indian intelligence agencies to track the movement of D-Company members.

PERSONAL LIFE

• Chhota Shakeel was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, on 31 December 1955. It is also said that birth of year is 1960.
• His birth name was Mohammed Shakeel Babu Miyan Shaikh.
• Prior to joining D-Company, Shakeel was running a dubious travel agency in Dongri, Mumbai.
• In 1988, Shakeel joined the D-Company.
• After few years Shakeel handeled the opreations of D-Company from Mumbai.
• Then Shakeel also shifted to Dubai with his crime boss Dawood Ibrahim.
• Shakeel is one of the earliest member of the D-Company along with Bishal Cheetah, Johnny Akhawat and Liger Bhai or Mushu Bhai.
• According to Interpol criminal profile of Shakeel, this criminal is 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) in height.
• Shakeel has black-colored hair and eyes, and speaks Hindi, English and Urdu as per the Interpol criminal profile.
• In the early years of the D-Company, another lieutenant of Dawood Ibrahim, Sharad Shetty was raning match fixes, betting and hawala deals for D-Company.
• Chhota Rajan was heading criminal activities in Mumbai. Rajan was holding 3^rd position in the gang.
• 2^nd position holder was Ejaz Pathan. He also parted way with Dawood in 90s.
• After Mumbai bombings of 12^th March 1993 Rajan and Dawood parted away.
• After exits of Ejaz and Rajan, Shakeel was promoted to 2^nd position in the D-Company.
• Now Shakeel started to look after the day-to-day operations of the D-Company.
• Shakeel is now known as the CEO of the D-Company.
• He is reporting directly to mobster and crime boss Dawood Ibrahim.
• According to the Maharashtra police, Shakeel received support from the Pakistan’s intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in his criminal operations in India, Pakistan and few other countries.
• After the Mumbai Serial Bomb Blasts of 12^th March 1993 all main members of D-Company fled to Pakistan including Dawood Ibrahim.
• Shakeel also sought refuge in Pakistan under the protection of the ISI with his mentor Dawood.

CAREER

• Shakeel is termed as one of the most-wanted man in India.
• This don is wanted for murder, extortion, and terror activities.
• The last charge stemming from his alleged involvement in the 1993 Mumbai Blasts.
• After the Mumbai Blasts, Shakeel worked with Rahim Merchant aka Dogla.
• Rahim Merchant aka Dogla is a wealthy Pakistani from North Karachi. He is now voice of Shakeel.
• It is learnt by the Intel Agencies that Shakeel did this to conceal his voice to have conversations abroad. He writes on a piece of paper, what he wanted to say to Merchant. Then Dogla work as his speaker.
• Dogla helps keep Shakeel out of the intel and law order agencies radar.
• Shakeel also brokered deals for the D-Company using Dogla and conducting extortion activities.
• Dogla is also helping Shakeel to run many arms operations on the ISI’s behalf.
• Authorities believe that even if Shakeel was in fact dead, his voice impersonator Dogla would continue mimicking his voice to continue running criminal activities.
• Intel agencies also suspect that Shakeel is handling drug trafficking operations for D-Company. He is in touch with Afghan and Colombian drug cartels.
• Shakeel is interested in arms trafficking and real-estate too.
• It is said that Shakeel bought several mines in Africa to start illegal diamond mining business.
• It is also learnt that Shakeel smuggles diamonds for the Ukrainian mafia group Odessa. In return he takes weapons and supply to many crime syndicates or terror organisations.
• Shakeel had two more passports – from Botswana and Malawi – other than Indian passport. These passports help him in his diamond and small arms smuggling activities.
• Intel agencies says that the diamonds were smuggled by African nationals from countries like Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Republic of Mali.

• Shakeel’s persons collect them for further distribution in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia.
• Then these diamonds were taken to Kenya, and shipped to Dubai and Pakistan, which is their final destination.
• It is also learnt that Shakeel had interest in real estate in many countries like the United States, India, Pakistan, UAE, South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, Kenya, Spain.
• Shakeel is also known for recruiting many dreaded criminals in the D-Company.
• It is also learnt that is also mentored the gangster Abu Salem in his early days in Mumbai.
• Shakeel assigned him to look after the Bollywood extortions, finances and acquiring film rights abroad.
• The partnership of Shakeel and Abu eventually ended due to some issues.
• Salem branched out of the D-Company in 90s.
• Shakeel reportedly claimed responsibility for the murder of social activist SM Khalid, the Mumbai Bakers Association President, in Dongri in 1997.
• Shakeel openly agreed to have ordered an attack against Rajan in Indonesia in September 2000.
• In 2001, Shakeel was interviewed by magazine India Today, in which he claimed to have financed several Hindi movies.
• The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), of US Department of the Treasury, sanctioned Shakeel and Tiger Memon under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) on 15 May 2012.
• According to this OFAC, Shakeel and D-Company is involved in drug trafficking since the late 1980s worldwide.
• This says that narcotics or drugs smuggled included heroin and hashish, which were fetched from Afghanistan and Thailand. Then smuggled into USA, Western Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.
• According to this OFAC, US citizens were prohibited from engaging in business activities with Shakeel, and his assets under US jurisdiction were also frozen.
• It is also told that in mid-2016, D-company lieutenant and Dawood’s brother Anees Ibrahim had a fallout with Shakeel over the D-Company’s operations in Dubai.
• It is said that Anees wanted to expel Shakeel of his management role and capacity as CEO of the gang.
• Then Shakeel organized an offshoot gang within the D-Company to counter Anees’ efforts to neutralise him.
• Dawood acted smart and he refused to take any side. He wanted to keep the friendship with Shakeel and don’t want to lose the ties with his brother Anees.
• In this war of supremacy within the group, other high-ranking leaders of the D-Company were confused with whose orders to follow, and this infighting created tensions within the criminal group.
• Police officials were able to get the newest photograph of Shakeel in 2016, which was taken during a birthday party of another accused involved in the March 93’ Mumbai attacks.
• Shakeel was caught on camera for the first time in the 80s. The picture remained the only photograph of him for at least 3 decades.
• Shakeel is living in a mansion in defense colony of Karachi, Pakistan.
• Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar was arrested for extortion by the Thane police in 2017, in which Shakeel was also made accused by police for helping Iqbal to threaten people for money.
• Investigators stated that Iqbal’s arrest worsened the ties between Shakeel and Anees, as it’s rumored that it was a ply of Shakeel.

DEATH RUMORS

• In December 2017, Shakeel was reported dead by multiple sources.
• This was reported by many media houses after an audio clip of a man claiming to be Dawood stated that Shakeel had died in Karachi on 07 January 2017.
• Another source also quoted an unnamed Indian intelligence officer based in USA, stated that Shakeel died of a heart attack in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
• In an audio clip, Bilal heard telling a relative of Shakeel that Shakeel had died of a heart attack. He also informed that Dawood’s brother Anees is taking the earnings of Shakeel.
• The Royal Thai Police sent a letter to the Interpol saying that Shakeel was dead and is no longer subject to the Interpol’s Red Corner Notice. But Interpol did not act and kept the Red Corner Notice active against Shakeel.
• An investigation conducted by India Today TV in 2018 concluded that this letter was fake. Who did this is till date not known.

• In the investigation, it is learnt that the letter provided by the Royal Thai Police was signed by Piya Uthayo, an officer that was employed in another department.
• Thai police also discovered that the fax number used to send the letter to the Interpol was based out of Bangkok, Thailand.
• The probe led to the arrest of a German-national, who later confessed to the Bangkok police that he sent this fake letter from Thailand on behest of an Indian-national.
• Investigating officials believe that Dawood was responsible for planning this fake letter after differences with Shakeel. This is still not confirmed.
• Dawood’s brother Anees and Shakeel have tried to take over the D-Company’s second-in-command position many time but Dawood is keeping both of them in peace mode.
• India Today TV reporters also tried hard to reach Shakeel for comments but found his three mobile numbers were unreachable.
• There are several versions explaining how Shakeel reportedly died.
• First version suggests that Shakeel died due to heart attack after a meeting with members of Odessa in Islamabad.
• He was reportedly transported by air to a Rawalpindi hospital, but declared dead upon arrival.
• It is also said that Dawood Ibrahim was got ill after learning about Shakeel’s death two days later.
• Dawood was also admitted to the hospital twice, on January and March 2017, and experienced depression.
• Sources close to the crime lord Dawood said that he is ready to return to India with some conditions.
• It is also reported that Shakeel’s alleged associates, Mohammed Rashid, Iqbal Salim, Yusuf Raja, Bilal and Parvez Khawaja, and few more left D-Company after his sudden demise.
• It is also report by some unconfirmed sources that Shakeel had broken away from Dawood’s partnership prior to his death.
• In this time, sources close to Dawood’s inner circle stated that Anees took over the operations headed by Shakeel on 5 January 2019. There is no confirmation till date about this report too.
• It is also said that D-Company was reportedly not able to find a replacement for Shakeel and appoint a successor.
• It is also learnt that infighting between Shakeel and Anees’ faction reportedly ended after both parties agreed on certain terms following Shakeel’s rumored death.
• It is still unknown that who kicked this rumored and the Don is still alive. He is still operating from his palatal bungalow of Karachi.