How I met India’s future most-wanted gangster

The arrest of Dawood Ibrahim’s younger brother led the reporter to the don

I visited 33 Pakmodia Street, residence-cum-office of Dawood Ibrahim, in 1985 — a day after his brother Noora got married. An interesting turn of events had taken me there.

Super sleuth Daya Shankar, a daring Customs officer, was posted as assistant collector with the Marine and Preventive Wing. On the day of Noora’s marriage, the officer was driving along Marine Drive when he witnessed a silver-coloured Nissan car.

He recalled that the same vehicle was used in a smuggling case he had detected in Gujarat and followed it. It led him to the gates of 33 Pakmodia Street. The driver had by then realised that he was being tailed. He was Anees, Dawood’s younger brother.

The area was decorated for Noora’s wedding. Several of Dawood’s gang members surrounded the officer and asked him to release Anees. Mera naam Daya Shankar hai, the officer roared and everybody retreated.

The word reached Dawood, who was inside the building. He rushed out and with folded hands requested the officer to release his brother for the night. He promised to present him at Daya Shankar’s office the next day.

Shankar said as he had nabbed the wanted man he would first take him to his office, then consider the request. No one dared to object. That was the reputation of Daya Shankar. He made Anees sit in his jeep and ordered another one to drive.
 
Dawood and his henchmen too reached the office and pleaded that Anees be spared for the night. Dawood promised to bring his brother back the next morning and Daya Shankar obliged.
 
The next morning I came to know about the incident from an informant and went to Shankar’s office. I found Anees sitting, with officers recording his statement. It was a good story, and I wanted to visit the spot and talk to witnesses, including Dawood, who was not a very “big man” at that time.

I reached 33 Pakmodia Street. The Don’s bodyguards questioned me about the purpose of my visit. On being told that I had met Anees at Daya Shankar’s office, they escorted me to the office.

One went up to the second-floor residence of Dawood to inform him. Within a few minutes, the don was in front of me — a man of short stature, clad in a white Pathani suit. He spoke in a very soft voice and smiled most of the time.
 
He praised Daya Shankar for his honesty and integrity. “If some other officer had come to pick up Anees, the people would have lynched him. But sahib (Daya Shankar) is great. We all worship him,” he told me.

Years later, in an interview to a leading weekly, Dawood repeated his statement that Daya Shankar and Rajiv Gandhi were the only hopes for a nation “full of corrupt people”.