New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS) Brijesh Singh, arrested from Orissa after eluding the police for over two decades, was once a close buddy of Mumbai’s underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who had helped him acquire a hotel in Malaysia, police sources here said Thursday.
“After the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Brijesh disassociated himself from Dawood, but the duo remained in regular touch and share close relations,” a Delhi Police official told IANS on condition of anonymity.
“On Dawood’s request, Brijesh and his accomplice Tribhuvan Singh had killed a sub-inspector and two constables of the Maharashtra police and Haldankar of the Arun Gawli gang, as they believed he (Haldankar) was behind the murder of (Dawood’s sister) Hasina Parkar’s husband,” the official added.
According to the sources, Brijesh owns a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. He had acquired it with Dawood’s help.
The sources said Brijesh was once close to Uttar Pradesh’s Independent legislator Mukhtar Ansari, but now they have fallen apart.
“Their gang war in the past few years has led to the killing of more than dozens of their associates as well as innocent people,” a senior official said.
Fearing his arrest and life threat form Ansari, Brijesh reportedly underwent a facial plastic surgery to conceal his identity. He laso acquired a fake passport in the name of Arun Kumar.
According to the sources, Brijesh was living in Orissa for the past five years and had shown interest in the Chandsi coal market in the state. He was also successful in building his crime network in the state.
Brijesh was arrested Wednesday from a market place in Bhubaneswar in a joint operation conducted by police teams of Delhi and Orissa.
Brijesh is accused of killings over 100 people in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Lucknow, Mirzapur and Choundoli towns.
He was evading his arrest since 1986 after fleeing from the custody of the Uttar Pradesh police.