Daud Merchant now in Mumbai
Abdur Rauf Daud Merchant, an Indian fugitive criminal, was sent to jail yesterday by a Mumbai court six days after he was released from a Bangladesh prison.
Convicted of killing Indian music baron Gulshan Kumar, the suspected associate of mafia boss Dawood Ibrahim was jailed in Bangladesh for illegal entry in 2009.
Quoting top police officials, Indian media reported yesterday that Daud Merchant was deported to India on Wednesday. Following his release from Dhaka Central Jail, he was taken to Meghalaya by the Bangladeshi authorities and handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF), it said.
Contacted, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, however, told The Daily Star, “He [Daud] went back to his country through the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh three to four days ago following his release from jail on completion of his jail term.”
Asked, an Indian diplomat wishing anonymity said he had no information about Daud.
Quoting a senior Mumbai Crime Branch official, our New Delhi correspondent reports that Daud was handed over to BSF along Bangladesh's border with Meghalaya. After that, he was handed over to a team of Mumbai Crime Branch officials who took him to Mumbai late on Wednesday night.
While his deportation was conducted in close coordination with the authorities of both the countries and with the assistance of the Interpol, it was being officially said that Daud was detained by BSF when he was trying to return to India.
“BSF contacted us on Merchant and a team of Crime Branch officials was sent there [Meghalaya]. They arrested him as he was a convict in our case. In line with the directives of the High Court, we produced him before the Sessions Court which sent him to high-security Arthur Road jail,” Mumbai Police Joint Commissioner (crime branch) Sanjay Saxena told The Daily Star correspondent.
According to the official, Mumbai police might move the court to seek Daud's custody for interrogating him about his whereabouts and activities since he jumped parole in 2009 and escaped.
Mumbai police hoped to get some key details regarding Dawood Ibrahim's aides as Daud had met them in Dubai a few years ago. He was likely to have information about the gang and its activities, Saxena added.
Daud was convicted in the 1997 murder of Gulshan Kumar and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002. He absconded after being released on parole in 2009 to meet his family.
He walked out of Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj on November 6, three days after a Dhaka court cleared him of charges of suspicious movement.
Daud along with another Indian national, Mohammad Zahid, was arrested in Brahmanbaria in 2009 for intruding into Bangladesh. He also had managed a Bangladeshi passport where his name was mentioned as Shomr Patel. During his arrest, police seized his driving licence and the passport.
In December, 2014, he had obtained bail in another case and was released from Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur. He, however, was rearrested outside the jail.
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