The central government is unaware of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s whereabouts, the Home Ministry on Tuesday informed Lok Sabha.
While making a statement in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary confirmed that the underworld don is not on Indian intelligence radar and extradition process will be initiated once Dawood is located.
“The United Nations Security Council has also issued a special notice against him. The subject has not been located so far. Extradition process with regard to Dawood Ibrahim would be initiated once the subject is located,” he said in reply to a written question.
The government has been maintaining for a long time that Dawood Ibrahim is living in Pakistan with the patronage of Pakistani security establishment.
Ever since Narendra Modi became the prime minister, reports have been emerging that the BJP government at the Centre is trying its level best to locate Dawood and bring him to justice.
Dawood Ibrahim is an underworld don who is also the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai blasts. On March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts rocked the western metropolis at various places, killing more than 250 and injuring over 700.
Last year a media report had said that the underworld don had changed his location and shifted his base to the Af-Pak border.
The report stated that Dawood was apprehensive of Modi’s intention and feared a commando style operation, similar to the US raid in Abbottabad, which killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Fearing this, the underworld don had changed his base and asked Pakistan`s ISI to enhance his security.
D-company is a reference to Dawood Ibrahim. D Company is involved in a variety of criminal activities, including narcotics trafficking, extortion, smuggling, and contract killings.
Dawood Ibrahim and other leaders of D Company are the subjects of Interpol Red Notices for their suspected involvement in the 1993 terrorist bombings in Mumbai, India in which 257 people were killed.
In October 2003, the US Treasury Department named Dawood Ibrahim as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and in June 2006, the United States named both Dawood Ibrahim and D Company as Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Kingpin Act.
Additionally, in May 2012, Treasury designated two senior D Company lieutenants, Chhota Shakeel and Ibrahim ‘Tiger’ Memon, under the Kingpin Act.
