mumbai

Updated: Jan 09, 2020 15:14 IST

The Crime Branch of Mumbai Police arrested fugitive gangster Ejaz Lakdawala, a former associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, from the Patna airport. The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Crime Branch arrested Lakdawala on Wednesday evening in connection with an extortion case.

He was produced before a local court which remanded him to police custody till January 21.

Lakdawala has been on India’s most wanted list from 1998 when he escaped from Nashik jail. He is wanted in 27 cases of murder and attempt to murder and in 80 cases of threatening businessmen for extortion in Mumbai alone.

“We have been planning his arrest since the last two years but we got credible information about him after arresting his cousin brother Sameer Lakdawala in February 2019,” said an AEC officer, requesting anonymity.

Sameer was wanted in extortion case in 2012. Later, the AEC also arrested Ezaj’s elder brother Aquil in April, 2019, who also gave information about Ejaz’s location.

But it was his daughter Sonia Lakdawala alias Sonia Shaikh who provided maximum information about Ejaz after she was arrested from Mumbai airport on December 29, 2019. “Sonia was picked up on tip-off when she was trying to escape to Nepal along with her daughter on a fake passport,” added the AEC official.

Later, Sonia was also arrested in second extortion case and threatening a Bandra-based developer on January 6, 2020. Ejaz Lakdawala was also booked in the same case as he was calling the builder from international numbers and threatening and demanding money for two months, said another AEC official.

An ex-student of Bandra’s St Stanislaus school, Lakdawala started out as an employee in his uncle’s transport company. In 1993, he killed one Haren Mehta after an altercation at a cricket match for which he was jailed but was acquitted in 1995. During his term in the prison, he came into contact with Sunil Madgaonkar alias Matya who eased him into the world of Mumbai’s underworld. Matya, a top associate of Chhota Rajan, is also credited to have nurtured Rajan’s favourite hitman Rohit Verma alias Hammer - who was killed in the 2000 shootout at Bangkok in which Rajan escaped with injuries.

Initially, Lakdawala was among the close confidants of Dawood who used to provide logistical support to D-Company members in Mumbai for extorting money from Bollywood film producers and businessmen. But after Rajan split with Dawood, Lakdawala chose to walk away with Rajan.

Matya gave Lakdawala his first job by asking him to kill Farid Rajji, an aide of Dawood confidant Chhota Shakeel. But Rajji survived the attempt on his life in 1996, and Lakdawala was arrested and sent to Nashik Jail. He escaped from Nashik jail in 1998 and reached Malaysia.

Lakdawala later shifted his base to Bangkok where he associated himself with Chhota Rajan. In 2003, he is believed to have played a major role in the killing of D-Company’s chief financier Sharad Shetty in Dubai which saw Shakeel order a hit on Lakdawala. He was shot in a busy market place in Bangkok in 2003, but survived despite being hit by seven bullets. Lakdawala was admitted to a hospital in Bangkok from where he escaped to South Africa, and later to Canada.

His last base of operation was in Nepal, said crime branch sources.