Chota Shakeel

Call him The Henchman of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar or The Hitman of the D-Company Chota Shakeel is the number second in the ranks of D-Company.

Chhota Shakeel was born in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, on 31 December 1955 or 1960. His birth name was Mohammed Shakeel Babu Miyan Shaikh. Prior to joining organized crime, Shakeel ran a dubious travel agency in Dongri, Mumbai. In 1988, he joined the D-Company, a criminal group based in South Asia, while stationed in Dubai. He was one of its earliest members along with Bishal Cheetah, Johnny Akhawat and Liger Bhai or Mushu Bhai. According to his Interpol criminal profile, Shakeel is 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) tall, has black hair and eyes, and speaks Hindi, English, and Urdu. And sports a thick and wide moustache.

During his early years in the D-Company, Sharad Shetty ran match fixes, betting and hawala deals for D-Company leader Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, while Chhota Rajan headed criminal activities in Mumbai. After the 1993 Bombay bombings and a split between Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and Chota Rajan's factions, Chota Shakeel was promoted to an executive role within the D-Company by befriending Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. As a leader of the D-Company, Chota Shakeel reportedly oversaw the day-to-day operations of the criminal group.

In the D-Company, Chota Shakeel was known as the CEO, and reported directly to Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. According to the Maharashtra police, he reportedly received support from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's intelligence agency, in his criminal operations. After the Bombay Serial Blasts attacks, Chota Shakeel sought refuge in Pakistan under the protection of the ISI.

Chota Shakeel is one of the most-wanted men in India. He is wanted for murder, extortion, and terrorism, the last charge stemming from his alleged involvement in the 1993 Bombay Serial Blasts bombings. According to Research and Analysis Wing(RAW) and other intelligence agencies, after the bomb attacks, Chota Shakeel worked with Rahim Merchant (alias "Dogla"), a wealthy Pakistani from North Karachi, to create a voice proxy. Chota Shakeel did this to conceal his voice while having conversations abroad, and wrote what he wanted to say to Merchant, who worked as his speaker. This helped keep Chota Shakeel under authorities' radar. Through Merchant, Chota Shakeel brokered deals for the D-Company, conducted extortion activities, and helped run many arms operations on the ISI's behalf. Authorities believe that even if Chota Shakeel was in fact dead, his voice impersonator Rahim Merchant would likely continue mimicking his voice to continue running criminal activities.

Authorities suspect that Shakeel was responsible for international drug trafficking operations for D-Company, and worked with Afghan and Colombian suppliers. He was also interested in arms trafficking and real-estate, and bought several mines in Africa to begin his illegal diamond mining business. Chota Shakeel reportedly smuggled diamonds for the Ukrainian mafia group Odessa and bartered them for weapons. In addition to his Indian passport, Shakeel had two more passports– from Botswana and the other from Malawi – to presumably help him in his diamond business. The diamonds were smuggled by African nationals from countries like Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Republic of Mali. They were collected for further distribution in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia. They were then taken to Kenya, and then shipped to Dubai and Pakistan. Chota Shakeel reportedly had real estate in countries like the United States, India, Pakistan, Morocco, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Spain and South Africa.

Chota Shakeel was one of the mentors of the former gangster Abu Salem. He entrusted him with overseeing Bollywood's finances and acquiring their film rights abroad. Their partnership eventually ended and Abu Salem branched out of the D-Company. In 1997, Shakeel reportedly claimed responsibility for the murder of social activist SM Khalid, the Bombay Bakers Association President, in Dongri. In September 2000, Chota Shakeel openly agreed to have ordered an attack against Chota Rajan, who was based out of Indonesia. In 2001, he was interviewed by India Today and claimed to have financed several Hindi films.

On 15 May 2012, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a branch of the United States Department of the Treasury, sanctioned Chota Shakeel and D-Company high-ranking leader Tiger Memon under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). According to the OFAC, Chota Shakeel and his criminal group were involved in international drug trafficking since the late 1980s. The narcotics smuggled included heroin and hashish, which were brought from Afghanistan and Thailand and imported illegally into the United States, Western Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. As part of this sanction, U.S. citizens were prohibited from engaging in business activities with Chota Shakeel, and his assets under U.S. jurisdiction were also frozen.

In mid-2016, D-company lieutenant and Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar's brother Anees Ibrahim Kaskar had a fallout with Chota Skaheel over the D-Company's operations in Dubai. Anees Ibrahim Kaskar wanted to oust Chota Shakeel of his leadership role. Chota Shakeel organised a faction within the D-Company to counter Anees Ibrahim Kaskar' efforts. Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar refused to take sides since he wanted to keep his friendship with Chota Shakeel and ties with his sibling Anees Ibrahim Kaskar. Other high-ranking leaders of the D-Company were confused with whose orders to follow, and this infighting created tensions within the criminal group.

In 2016, the police were able to gain possession of a photograph of Chota Shakeel after it was taken during a birthday party of another suspect involved in the Bombay Serial Blasts attacks. Chota Shakeel was caught on camera for the first time in the 1980s, and the picture remained the only photograph of him for at least three decades. During these years, Chota Shakeel was suspected of living in a mansion near Karachi, Pakistan.

In 2017, Dawood' Ibrahim Kaskar's brother Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar was arrested for extortion by the Thane police. In that criminal case, Chota Shakeel was accused of helping Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar by  threatening people for money. Investigators stated that Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar's arrest worsened the ties between Shakeel and Anees.

Chota Shakeel has been rumoured dead on a few occasions.I n December 2017, Chota Shakeel was reported dead by multiple sources after an audio clip of a man claiming to be Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar stated that he had died in Karachi, Pakistan on 7 January 2017. Another source, citing an unnamed Indian intelligence officer based in the U.S., stated that Chota Shakeel died of a heart attack in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. In the clip, a man known as Bilal was heard telling a relative of Chota Shakeel that Chota Shakeel had died of a heart attack and that Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar's brother Anees Ibrahim Kaskar was taking his earnings. The Royal Thai Police had reportedly sent a letter to the Interpol saying that Chota Shakeel was dead and was no longer subject to the Interpol's Red Notice.

An investigation conducted by India Today TV in 2018 concluded that this scheme was fake. The letter provided by the Royal Thai Police was signed by Piya Uthayo, an officer that was employed in another department. The police discovered that the fax number used to send the letter to the Interpol was based out of Bangkok, Thailand. The probe led to the arrest of a German-national who confessed to the Bangkok police that he was sent to Thailand to send the letter on orders from an Indian-national. Investigators believe that Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar was responsible for planning this scheme after disagreements with Chota Shakeel. Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar's brother Anees Ibrahim Kaskar and Shakeel have tried to take over the D-Company's second-in-command position. India Today TV tried reaching Chota Shakeel for comment but his three mobile numbers were unreachable.

There are several versions explaining how Chota Shakeel reportedly died. One version suggests that he died of a heart attack shortly after a meeting with members of Odessa in Islamabad. He was reportedly transported by air to a hospital in Rawalpindi, but was declared dead upon arrival.

Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar reportedly got ill after learning about Chota Shakeel's death two days later. He was admitted to the hospital twice, on January and March 2017, and experienced depression. Sources close to the crime boss stated that he was contemplating to return to India. Most of Chota Shakeel's alleged associates, Bilal, Mohammed Rashid, Iqbal Salim, Yusuf Raja, and Parvez Khawaja, reportedly left the D-Company after his death. Other unconfirmed reports stated that Chota Shakeel had broken away from Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar's partnership prior to his death. Sources close to Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar's inner circle stated that Anees Ibrahim Kaskar took over the operations headed by Chota Shakeel on 5 January 2019. D-Company was reportedly not able to find a replacement for Chota Shakeel's void in Tajikistan and took longer than expected to appoint a successor. The infighting between Chota Shakeel and Anees Ibrahim Kaskar's faction reportedly ended after both parties agreed on certain terms following Chota Shakeel's rumored death.