MANGALORE: Rashid Malabari first met Chhota Shakeel, who worked for the Dawood Ibrahim gang, in 2005.
He began looking after the hawala business in order to free gang members who were languishing in jail.
His brothers Ismail and Sajid were shot dead in Mumbai in 1996.
He committed his first murder when he shot Vilas, an associate of Mohan Kotiyan, in 1996.
In the following year, he was part of Chhota Shakeel’s gang that killed Hussain Vasta, an informant of Chhota Rajan. In 1998, he shot Prashant and John in Baikampady, after assuming they were Chhota Rajan’s killers.
He was also involved in the 1998 shootout in K G Halli police station limits. On instructions from Dawood, he shot Balu Dokre, a close aide of Chota Rajan, in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.
Nine months ago, he had entered India through Nepal.
After moving incognito, Malabari received hawala money to assassinate prominent leaders in the country. The district police intends to reopen cases of his previous crimes and contact Interpol wing of CBI in New Delhi.
‘Rs two lakh for special squad’
DG&IGP Ajai Kumar Singh announced a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh for the special squad of Western Range police for nabbing Rashid Malabari.
He made special mention of the efforts of B Dayananda (intelligence), Udupi DySP Jayanth Shetty, Mangalore DCIB Venkatesh Prasanna, Udupi DCIB Srinivas Raju and DK SP A S Rao.