D-aide Takla booked in passport forgery case

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 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-385/71995) 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.