On 24 September 1982, Commissioner Julio Ribeiro had an interesting visitor in his office. It was Bollywood bigwig Dilip Kumar. With him were his friends Riyaz and Mushir, who had produced a film called Shakti, in which Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan were the lead actors. The producers were preparing for its release in the first week of October. Just then, they received the fright of their lives. Mushir was abducted and taken to an unknown destination, where he was tortured and asked to pay Rs 20 lakh. That he had lived to tell the tale was a miracle. Scared out of their wits, the producers had scurried to Dilip Kumar. He had contacted his old buddy Karim Lala and enquired if it was his gang’s doing or if he knew who could be responsible. Karim Lala had emphatically denied any knowledge of the crime. So Dilip Kumar had dragged Mushir and Riaz to the CP’s office.
Ribeiro immediately summoned his Crime Branch officers, Inspector Madhukar Zende and Sub Inspector Isaque Bagwan.
Mushir described what had happened that evening: He had just dropped his friend Harish Sugandh at his office near Poddar Hospital in Worli and was driving southward. As he approached Haji Ali, a white Ambassador car overtook him and, in a trice, obstructed his way. He had no other option but to apply the brakes and stop, which he had barely managed, when three armed men jumped out, dragged him out of his car and bundled him into the Ambassador. Then they blindfolded him and pushed him to the floor of the car. They drove to their hideout, roughed him up and threatened him with dire consequences unless he coughed up Rs 20 lakh. Mushir assured the captors that his friend Harish would make the payment on his behalf. Two goons went right away to Harish’s house near Shivaji Park and demanded the money, but Harish could manage only Rs 2 lakh. Mushir then solemnly promised to pay them the rest of the money, provided they released him and gave him time. Mercifully, they agreed and set him free. Since Mushir had been blindfolded, he could neither describe the abductors nor the location of the place of his confinement.
Then the officers took over and began questioning him. They started asking him the right questions to jog his memory and Mushir came up with more pertinent details. The incident was fresh in his mind, and the information turned surprisingly eloquent. It had taken them 10–12 minutes to reach the hideout. Then he was made to step out of the car and walk. As he trudged, he came to what felt like a plank and was met with such a stench that he was sure they were crossing a sewage drain. Then he had to climb stairs, during which he stumbled. Immediately, they made him hold the balustrade. It was to his right. Taking ten to twelve steps to the first floor, he was made to turn to his right. It seemed like a corridor. He could hear children reciting verses from the Quran. A short walk took him to a room where they briefly removed his blindfold. The room had only two chairs and a picture of Mecca and Madina above the door. From the window, he also caught a glimpse of the tall chimney of Ahmed Umar Oil Mill.
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Bagwan was familiar with Dongri and the surrounding areas. From the narration, he deduced that such a spot, at 10 to 12 minutes distance from Haji Ali at that traffic hour, would surely be in Nagpada. Crime Branch hands, well-acquainted with the area, were put on the job. The description matched a first-floor room in the Kader Building in Nagpada—complete with the stench, the gutter and the plank, the Quran classes for children in a nearby room, the pictures of Mecca and Madina above the door and the chimney of the oil mill. It turned out to be the interrogation room of the Amirzada-Alamzeb Gang.
All the Crime Branch informants were activated, and the hunt for the abductors began. Raids were conducted on their latest haunts and foxholes. One Salim, originally a Hindu named Sanya who had converted to Islam, worked as a male dancer in Sonia Mahal and was Alamzeb’s associate. He was brought in for questioning and confessed to having played a role in the abduction. He told the police that Amirzada’s brother Shahzada and one Liaquat Master had abducted Mushir. Amirzada and Alamzeb were in Kalupur near Ahmedabad and were being harboured by one Rafique, an MLA. Shahzada and Liaquat had fled to Shegaon. Zende directed Bagwan and Bhaskar Satam to Shegaon, but it proved a wild goose chase. The Kalupur bound team comprising SIs Bawiskar and Jeremiah and Hawaldars More and Parab were lucky. Parab spotted a white Ambassador parked outside a gambling den, and they had found their lead. It was Amirzada’s car.
In the first week of October 1982, Alamzeb and Amirzada stood chatting outside a building that housed Latif’s residence on the first floor and his brother’s printing press on the ground floor in a place called Popatiya Vad in Dariapur. Some two buildings away was a masjid, and it was time for the afternoon namaz. As the muezzin gave his call to the devout, Alamzeb hurriedly proceeded to the masjid. Amirzada, not too keen on rituals, stayed behind. Just then, the Bombay Police team reached the spot and scooped up their prize catch. Had they arrived a few minutes earlier, they would have snared both the birds. Amirzada was brought to Bombay and later also arrested in the Sabir murder case.
How did you decide that Mushir was the cherry to pick for extortion? Amirzada was grilled. His answers led the police to Ahmed Sayad Khan, a Bollywood production manager living in the Chhapra building in Wanje Wadi in Mahim. His brother, Abdul Wahab, was a film artiste and lived near the Mount Mary Church in Bandra. Ahmed had a close friend, Abu Bakar, who introduced him to Amirzada. Amirzada befriended him and even invited him to his sister’s wedding. He was also introduced to Alamzeb, Shahzada and Mehmood Kaliya, who filled him with more awe. They made him feel special, and he was over the moon with the attention. He enjoyed the zing from his proximity to the dons and began visiting them regularly. Unknown to Ahmed, they were cultivating him as a source in the film industry.
In July 1982, Amirzada, while on the run, began visiting Ahmed’s house and pressurizing him for information on Bollywood personalities whom they could target for extortion. ‘You must tell us about people who need help to recover their money and those who are flush with black money,’ Amirzada insisted. Ahmed was trapped and scared. Now he had to give some names, even if it meant squealing. He could think of Harish Sugandh, whose firm Glamour Colour handled film publicity. His brother Mohammed used to visit Harish’s office and had mentioned that Mushir, whose film Shakti was about to be released, had given Rs 90 lakh in cash to Harish. It was bound to be lying in Harish’s office. Ahmed passed on this snippet to Amirzada, and the result was Mushir’s abduction on 23 September.
The way the Pathans had gone about executing this abduction exhibited desperation. Hounding Dawood while being on the run themselves was a costly business. Wangling enough funds for it was a Herculean task. They had to, come what may, net a big fish. They had zeroed in on Mushir, but the abduction had backfired disastrously. And besides, they got just Rs 2 lakh against the Rs 20 lakh demanded.
What’s more, they had turned Dilip Kumar, a friend of Karim Lala, into an enemy. The matinee idol had taken up cudgels against them, and it had invited strong and concerted action from the Bombay Police. Until then, despite his serious injury, Amirzada had managed to evade arrest for almost one and a half years and continued to commit crimes. With this abduction, the spell was broken. Amirzada was now behind bars, and their prestige had taken a beating.
This excerpt from ‘When It All Began’ by Rakesh Maria has been published with permission from Penguin Random House India.