Chhota Rajan planned to kill Dawood Ibrahim in 1998, don Lakdawala reveals

Underworld don Ejaz Lakdawala has told Mumbai Police that close aides of Chhota Rajan had planned to kill fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in 1998, however, the operation failed. Lakdawala, 50, who was on the run for two decades and was once a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim, made this revelation during interrogation by the Mumbai Crime Branch following his arrest last month in connection with cases of extortion and attempt to murder against him.

A member of the Chhota Rajan gang, Lakdawala was arrested in a joint operation by the Mumbai and Patna Police in Jakkanpur bus stand in Bihar's capital city on January 8. He was then taken to Mumbai by the Mumbai Police on the same day. Living in Nepal's Kathmandu for many years, the underworld don had come to Patna evading the security agencies on the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar's Raxaul. He was reportedly on his way to Mumbai from Nepal on some operation. 

Previously a Dawood gang member, Ejaz Lakdawala had aligned with Chhota Rajan after the group split, later went to form his own gang, he said. In 2012, he was also attacked by underworld don Chhota Rajan in Bangkok, however, he survived the attack. Lakdawala who wanted in connection with several cases of extortion, attempt to kill and rioting, was arrested by Mumbai Police. Lakdawala was apprehended by Mumbai Crime Branch's anti-extortion cell team at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj  International Airport. In May 2004, he was arrested by the Canadian Police in  Ottawa. 

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Lakdawala's confessions 

Revealing sensational information, underworld don Ejaz Lakdawala had confirmed that Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan. The fugitive gangster during the investigation has revealed that Dawood is in Pakistan's Karachi. Moreover, he had stated that Anees, Chota Shakeel, and others are under the safe havens of Pakistan's ISI. 

During the course of the interrogation since his arrest by Mumbai and Bihar Police, the Ejaz Lakdawala had also confessed that Dawood goes to Hajj (religious pilgrim to Mecca & Medina) every year, further revealed that the most-wanted underworld don is currently suffering from Gangrene disease.  In his confessions, Ejaz Lakdawala said that he had met with Dawood last in 1999 at the Abdulla Shah Gazi darbar in Karachi, on the death of his daughter. He further said that even Chhota Shakeel, a high ranking member of the D-Company goes to Hajj every year. 

Chhota Rajan, who was Dawood's one of the closest aides in the early days, turned into arch enemies. Differences between the two gangsters emerged after don Arun Gawli's elder brother was killed in 1990. Gawli was a close associate of both--Chhota Rajan and Dawood Ibrahim. Rifts became wider after the demolition of Babri Masjid and the subsequent serial bomb blasts in Mumbai by Dawood.

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(With PTI inputs)