Hit job on Waqf board chief foiled, 3 men of D-Company held

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police special cell has arrested three men, who had allegedly been tasked by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his key lieutenant Chhota Shakeel to murder Waseem Rizvi, chairman of UP Shia Central Waqf Board.

Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) PK Kushwah said that the three men — Salim Ahmed, Abrar and Arif — were arrested from Bulandshahr on Thursday.

While Kushwah did not disclose the motive behind the conspiracy, Rizvi told ANI that “the arrest of three people who were conspiring to kill him means he is on target of extremists due to his pro-Ram Mandir stand”. Investigators who did not wished to be named also cited Rizvi’s stance and recent statements on the Ayodhya issue as the reason behind the conspiracy.

Kushwah said for the past few months they had the leads and were working on them soon after receiving intelligence inputs that Chhota Shakeel, under the directions from fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, had been planning some “subversive activities in India.”

“During the course of our probe, we found that one Salim from Bulandshahr had recently returned from Dubai and was in touch with Dubai-based underworld operatives. The activities of Salim were monitored which revealed that Salim, along with his associates, was planning to murder Rizvi,” he said.

According to the police, they received a specific input that in March 2018, the group had convened a meeting in Delhi for this purpose. And from Delhi, they went to Lucknow to carry out a reconnaissance of the office of their target.

“After conducting a recce, they informed their handlers in Dubai, who then directed them to procure arms and ammunition. With the help of a specific input, we arrested them from Bulandshahr and recovered arms, ammunition and mobile phones used by them to plan and execute the conspiracy,” said Kushwah.

In the interrogation so far, the trio has disclosed that Salim, who has had contacts with members of the Mumbai underworld since the 1990s when he had spent four years in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail in a robbery case, was the one who was tasked with the crime by Shakeel’s associates in Dubai.

“In 2017, he went to Dubai on tourist visa where he met an associate of Chhota Shakeel, who works for D-Company. The man tasked Salim to carry out the murder of Rizvi and gave 3,000 dirham to procure weapons for the same,” said Kushwah.