Rashid Malabari, Dawood’s link to South India arrested after 4 year chase

New Delhi, July 2: Rashid Malabari alias Abdul Rashid Hussein who went missing from Mangalore in 2014 was finally caught at Abu Dhabi. He is a Dawood Ibrahim henchman and is one of the most dreaded sharpshooters of the D-Gang.

He was arrested several years back in Karnataka after the police busted a plot in which he was attempting to target several Hindu activists and also BJP leader, Varun Gandhi.

The chase for the agencies finally ended with his arrest. The chase lasted almost four years and now India would make attempts to extradite him as he is wanted in several cases.

Malabari, originally from Kerala was tasked by Dawood's right hand man, Chhota Shakeel to eliminate the likes of Varun Gandhi and Pramod Muthalik of the Shri Ram Sene. Investigations revealed that he was based in Pakistan and was sent to India to specifically carry out the killing of Hindu leaders in a bid to fuel communal tension.

During the interrogation, he had told the Mangalore police that they were planning that they were planning on carrying out the killings during the 2009 elections.

Claim to fame:

Malabari, according to investigating agencies, is a key person in the Chhota Shakeel network. He rose to fame for the first time when he carried out the attack on Chhota Rajan at Bangkok. He remained in Bangkok for a long time before fleeing to Pakistan after a red corner alert was sounded against him.

Malabari, by this time, had earned the confidence of both Shakeel and Dawood Ibrahim and in due course of time became a trusted aide. His initial operations were from Pakistan and Dubai. However, after a couple of years, he was asked to concentrate on India. He then began building a base in both Uttar Pradesh and Mangalore, and hence, was assigned the task of carrying out the assassinations.
Rasheed's family too was actively involved in the underworld. His brother Ismail too was a key member of the D Gang. However, he was gunned down in an encounter by the Mumbai police in the year 2000.

The grand escape:

On July 21 2014 Malabari was granted bail by a court in Mangalore. He left the jail the next day and since then had been un-traceable.

Since his release, not one agency kept a watch on him despite knowing fully well what a hardened criminal he was. Moreover Malabari was granted conditional bail which meant he had to report to the police station regularly. The police all through did not even realise that he had not reported to the police station and it was only when the case came up before the court to review his bail did they realise he was missing.‎

Malbari has nine criminal cases in Mangalore and one in Bangalore pending against him. He was shifted from the Mangalore jail to Bellary and later to the Bangalore jail due to security reasons.

‎It was later that the agencies realised that he had jumped bail and fled to Nepal. It is suspected that from Nepal, he fled to Abu Dhabi at the insistence of Shakeel. The D-gang which has been facing several losses had tasked Malabari with reviving the business in Abu Dhabi sources also said.