NEW DELHI: There is a “definite Nexus” between the associates of underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim, the main accused in the Bombay serial blast case, and the Congress stalwart and former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Sharad Pawar, according to a report in the coming issue of an English fortnightly, Outlook.

The report, which deals extensively with Mr. Pawar, also mentions a few other politicians and film stars. It alleges ARs 3 crore pay off to Mr. Arun Nehru, when he was the Internal Security Minister, and states that top Stars like Dilip Kumar and Feroz Khan had their money transacted through hawala conduits.

I centers around the activities of Mool Chand Shah alias Choksi, a hawala racketeer “close to Dawood Ibrahim and gang” who is also involved in the Jain hawala case. It says that Choksi would boast of his political connections” whenever under interrogation and “was dropping the name of Mr. Chandra Shekhar, former Prime Minister, in this connection.”

It also hints at the links with the underworld of the AICC general secretary, Mr. Ahmed Patel, and the late Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr. Chimanbbai Patel. Quoting from what it says are documents of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the report alleged that a hefty sum of Rs 72 crore was transferred or paid to Mr, Pawar by Choksi between December, 1979 and October, 1992.

These documents, claims the Outlook, were sent by the MHA to the NH. Vohra committee which came to the conclusion that there existed a parallel mafia rule in the country. The government has not yet released the annexures of the Vohra committee report.

In the case of Mr, Pawar, the report lists the following payments and transactions; (a) between December, 1979 and February 1980, Mool Chand Choksi paid Rs 7 crore to Mr. Pawar “which was received from an undisclosed source in the West” (b) around May, 1991 Choksi paid another installment of Rs 5 crore to Mr, Pawar, the amount reportedly transferred form a middle-eastern country through the hawala channel; (cy on behalf of Mr. Pawar, Pappu Kalyani (Kalani) handed over Rs 30 crore to Chand Choksi 1990 for transfer abroad; and (d) another amount of Rs 50 crore was transferred by Choksi on behalf of Mr, Pawar through an advocate. According to the report, Choksi had developed “closeness” with Dawood ‘and his gang way back in 1980. Shah ‘was also responsible for transferring money for“ various important people of Bombay to the Middle-East and ‘other countries for safe catching.”

‘The report says that Choksi had been in constant touch with Mr, Pawar till a few months before the Bombay blasts. A major transaction of Rs 10 crore allegedly took place in October, 1992, In this transaction, says the report, “Choksi delivered an amount of Rs 10 crore to the nephew of Mr. Pawar. The amount had reportedly come from the Middle-East.”

Shah was arrested under TADA on May 4, 1993, for funding Tiger Memon with Rs 2.5 crore for the blasts.

The report mentions another accused in the Bombay blasts case, Usman Ghani, as having “established contacts with the glitterati of Bombay for siphoning their black money through the hawala conduit to foreign accounts.” It talks of “a very top politician of Bombay” apart from a few film stars. “Some of the important personalities whose money he (Ghani) transacted are Dilip Kumar, Feroz Khan and one Banerjee, an advocate of Bombay, whois reported to be very close to a very top politician of Bombay.”

In the case of Mr. Arun Nehru, it is alleged, a Delhi based hawala dealer, Shambhu Dayal Sharma alias Gupiaji, ‘acted as a conduit for Choksi in the payoff, According to the report, in fact this was the first time that Sharma’s name came to the notice of the authorities.

‘The report says it was Sharma’s arrest in 1991 and his subsequent interrogation which had the CBI raid J.K. Jnin’s residence where it “stumbled across the now famous diaries.”

The report alleged that Choksi managed to skip the dragnet of the law because of his political connections. It cites the following instances; (a) a detention order issued against him in March, 1989 was revoked by the “Government of Maharashtra” on May 10, 1990, without assigning any reason; (b) he was arrested on November 30, 1990, in connection with a case but was immediately released on bail.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 14, 1996