Farooq Devdiwala, a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, was reportedly killed in Karachi, Pakistan. The alleged murder is said to have been carried out on the orders of Chhota Shakeel, who suspected Devdiwala of conspiring against the boss of the D-Company.
Sources told the Times of India that Shakeel got to know of Devdiwala's plot from his informants, who also said that he had met Indian agency officials in Dubai. Shakeel then reportedly confronted Devdiwala, who admitted to the information. The D-Company and Shakeel then concluded that Devdiwala could no longer be trusted.
The Mumbai police's crime branch hasn't spoken up on the matter, but sources told TOI that the Interpol was trying to find out if Devdiwala was indeed killed.
If Devdiwala has been murdered, this will be the second such instance in which a close aide of Dawood has been killed by the gang. The first instance was that of gangster Feroz Kokani, who was killed for disrespecting the D-Company's boss some time in 2000.
A resident of Jogeshwari, Devdiwala is also wanted in India for various offences, including recruiting and training people for the terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM). The Anti-Terrorism Squad too has been on the lookout for Dawood's aide on suspicions that he was a part of several crimes, including the murder of Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya.
India had sought Devdiwala's deportation, but the plan wasn't successful as Pakistan, in July 2018, managed to gain the custody of the gang member by submitting forged documents and passport to prove that he was a Pakistani national.
Meanwhile, reports that Devdiwala was killed on the orders of Shakeel also hint that Shakeel is still a part of the D-Company and alive. In December 2017, it was being said that Shakeel, Dawood's most trusted aide for the last 30 years, had parted ways with his boss and had even moved away from the the Clifton area of Karachi.
The cracks in their equation appeared when the two had an argument over Dawood's brother Anees Ibrahim's interference in the operations and dealings of the D-Company, sources at the time told TOI.
While Shakeel has stood by Dawood through thick and thin for about three decades, it was said that Anees had of late been trying to usurp his position. Dawood had apparently even warned Anees against interfering in the matters, explaining that Shakeel was the one who would handle the gang's affairs, but he refused to back down, leading to an argument between Dawood and Shakeel.
A few days later, it was also said that Shakeel may have, in fact, died. An informant had at the time told Hindustan Times that Shakeel may be dead and the daily even had an audio clip of a conversation between Bilal, a member of Shakeel's gang, and a relative of Shakeel, who lives in Mumbai. And in the audio clip, the same was reportedly heard being discussed.
HT's informant even gave out quite some details of Shakeel and said that the 57-year-old died in Islamabad, Pakistan, where he was meeting members of the Odessa Mafia. Strangely, there were two versions of how Dawood's trusted aide died. While one said that he suffered a cardiac arrest and was declared brought dead by the Combined Medical Hospital in Rawalpindi, another version says that the Odessa had killed Shakeel at the behest of the ISI.
