38-year-old Rashid Malbari, alias Rashid Hussain Sheikh, a close aide of gangster Chota Shakeel had planned to kidnap a Dubai-based businessman returning to Mangalore for a ransom of Rs 5 crore. The ransom amount was to be used to assassinate Varun Gandhi and Pramod Muthalik, Malbari confessed before the Mangalore police.
In his confession statement which is in possession of rediff.com, Rashid said that he was in Dubai when his boss Shakeel told him to go to India on an assignment. "I flew from Dubai to Nepal and reached Mumbia via Gorakhpur. After reaching Mumbai I called up Shakeel who asked me to go to Mangalore and meet Ismail," his confessional statement said.
"Ismail, told me to stay in a rented house in Kaup for sometime before the assignment was finalized. While staying there I was introduced to Sayaf, Mohammed Hashim and Ibrahim. Soon we became good friends and I was given Alto car to move around. Ibrahim gave me Rs 25,000 to go to Mumbai," Rashid said in his confession.
Assignment via SMS
"When I reached Mumbai I called up Shakeel on his phone to get further instructions. He did not tell me anything but few days later he sent me two SMS, one mentioning that I should kill Pramod Muthalik and the other said kill Indira Gandhi's grandson, Varun Gandhi. I called him to confirm the message, he said that I should complete the assignment to safeguard the interest of the community."
"Shakeel asked me what I needed and which assignment I could do faster. I told him I would kill Muthalik first. I told him I needed three pistols. Shakeel sent me three pistols. He also messaged Muthalik. I returned to Mangalore and asked Sayaf, Ibrahim and Hashim to do a reccee on Muthalik."
"I explained to Ibrahim and Suhail about the plot to kill Muthalik as he was anti muslim. I gave them Rs 20,000 for the assignment and asked Ibrahim and Hashim to make a detailed sketch of the area and send it to me, but before this they were caught.I explained to them about the plan and we decided to kidnap Isaoobu, for a ransom, to utilize the same for the Varun Gandhi assignment. Shakeel had also sent me Rs 1 lakh."
Rashid further confessed that he took the help of his nephew Suhail to kidnap Isoobu. "We had planned ot kidnap Isaboo near Udupi railway station. After briefing the assignment to the boys, I shifted myself to Kasargod and stayed in a rented house," Rashid told the cops.
Confession
"I hail from Maharashtra's Thane district and used to stay at room no. 202 Kulsoom apartments. I used to stay at this above mentioned place with my wife Zohra and my son Azhar. I studied upto 5th standard at Mumbai's Govandiya Shivaji school. I droppped out after 5th standard. Later at the age of 14 I went to Dubai to work with Ismail, who is my sister Hajira's husband.
My parents are from Udupi, my father used to work in Mumbai hotels for a living. My mother Zainabee was my father's third wife. My father has 8 children with her. We used to stay at Mumbai's Dongri place. After my father's death in 1975, we moved to Ghatkopar.
When I was young I used to work as a coolie at the bustands, Later I started working at tea shops, I wanted to earn more money so I started distributing milk door to door. When I was 13 years old I started my own tea shop. Later after my sister Hajira got married to Ismail, he made my passport and took me to Dubai within 6 months of their wedding.
I went to Dubai and worked as a salesman in an Ice cream company Um-al-queen. My brother, Ismail, used to get caught in street brawls and land up in jail very often . I was aware this fact. I used towork as a mechanic at a garage in Dubai. One day a friend C.K.Shariff borrowred Rs 15,000 from me, saying he would return the money once he got back from India, but he did not return it. So we had a fight. I was sent to jail in Dubai for 25 days. Then I paid a fine of Rs 10,000 and got out of jail. When I got out jail, my manager at the ice cream company was not happy with me, he warned me that i would be sacked, then I took leave for 25 days and came back to Mumbai in 1990.
When I got back to Mumbai my elder brother Ismail was in jail, he was acused of the murder of Babasaheb Jadhav. I needed money to get my borther out. Sombody called me on phone and asked me to meet them at a restuarant in Andheri. He was Javed alias Lambu. As I was talking to him he asked one of his henchman to kill me. These men were my brothers enemies. They wanted to take revenge, i managed to escape.
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