Passport forgery case: Dawood's aide charge-sheeted

The CBI has charge-sheeted international terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's close aide Farooq Takla in a case of forgery in passport, which was used by him to escape the law under a false identity after the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, officials said.

Mohammed Farooq alias Farooq Takla (58) was nabbed at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on March 8, 2018, when he arrived in an Air India flight from Dubai. The operation is believed to have been carried out by central security agencies, sources said.

He was carrying a passport (Number J6435628) issued in the name of Mushtaq Mohammed Mian at the time of his arrest, they said.

Farooq had assumed the identity of Mushtaq in 1991 when he provided false information to get a passport in this name from the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Mumbai, according to the CBI charge sheet filed recently before a special court in Mumbai.

He allegedly used this identity to reside in Dubai and other gulf cities while he allegedly worked for Ibrahim and helped him with logistics for carrying out the 1993 Mumbai blasts, the officials said.

They said after the blasts, an Interpol Red Corner Notice (Number A-385/7-1995) was issued against Farooq in 1995 to enable his arrest but a fake passport allegedly helped him escape the clutches of the law.

In 2001, he had approached the Consulate General of India in Dubai to renew his passport, the charge sheet claimed.

Based on the forged information provided by him, the consulate general in Dubai had issued a passport number Z1312046, which was valid till July 2, 2002, it said.

In 2011, Farooq was again issued a passport J6435628 by the consulate general. He was travelling on this passport number when he was arrested by agencies in Delhi, the charge sheet said.

He is in judicial custody at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai since his arrest under the stringent Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.

The serial blasts cases are being tried under this law.

The CBI had registered a case of passport forgery against him under Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to cheating and violation of the Passport Act on March 28 last year.

After completing the probe in the passport case, the CBI has filed a charge sheet in the court of additional chief magistrate, Mumbai.

It is alleged that Farooq was a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim and Anees Ibrahim, and an active conspirator behind the 1993 mayhem at the nerve centres of Mumbai which shook the entire country.

The serial blasts at iconic places of Mumbai had claimed 257 lives and injured over 700.

The agency has already charged Farooq for the blasts under TADA provisions in its charge sheet filed in August 2018.

The agency had taken over the investigation in the bombings from the Bombay (now Mumbai) Police on November 19, 1993.

The police had filed a charge sheet on November 4, 1993, in which Farooq, accused number 196, was listed as one of the 44 absconders.

Farooq, then a resident of Shaikh Burhan Kamruddin Street, managed air tickets, accommodation, and briefing for five accused who had travelled to Pakistan via Dubai for getting training in handling of arms, ammunition and explosives, which were used in the blasts, the CBI has alleged in its charge sheet.

He allegedly received Saleem Bismillah Khan alias Saleem Kurla (now dead) and four others -- Mohammed Haneef Mohammed Usman Sheikh, Sheikh Abraham Sheikh Hussain, Usman Khan and Mohammed Sayeed Ishaq -- in Dubai, the charge sheet alleged.

Farooq funded their travel and accommodation and briefed them about their steps to visit Pakistan for the training and return to Mumbai, the CBI has alleged.

After completion of the training, it was Farooq's responsibility to take them to the Karachi airport and bring them to Dubai without any stamp on their passports with the help of Pakistan's espionage agency ISI, Mumbai Police officials who probed the case have alleged.

Because of this, investigators of Mumbai Police were not able to collect evidence of the movement of men from Dubai to Karachi for the training purpose, they said.