Way smuggler Ali breached coastal security a national concern: cops

“Shaikh no longer remains a regular criminal. His area of activity has implications on national security,” said Sanjeev Dayal,Commissioner of Police.

“If he has used loopholes (in coastal security) for such a long time to siphon diesel,nothing stops him from using the same route to get any other dangerous contraband inside,” he said.

“It is the point-to-point network that concerns us. He controls the mother vessel; the tugs and the boats belong to him. His capability is at every level,from getting a commodity shipped in the open sea,shifted to shore on tugs and small boats,then shifted to his storehouses after it reaches landing points marked by him,and then transported to any point in the city and the state or anywhere in the country. In getting this network in place,he has evolved his own security breaches… He can get anything into the city without anyone’s knowledge,” Dayal said.

Shaikh Akhtar Allah Rakha,also arrested for the murder,has told the Crime Branch that he worked on contract with Bombay Port Trust for supplying provisions to merchant vessels. Jt CP (Crime) Himanshu Roy said,“Allah Rakha and his men would negotiate (with crew) and fix quantities of diesel to be smuggled at Rs 8 to Rs 10 per litre.” The market price is Rs 40 a litre.

“Using their tugs,diesel was pilfered through syntax tanks in the night. The crew would show usage of diesel in excess,” Roy said.

In the last decade,the Crime Branch said,Md Ali Shaikh has re-routed wealth made from smuggling to investments like 300 dumpers,container storage yards and warehouses leased to JNPT,cold storage units,and over 120 fork lifts.

He declared assets worth over Rs 18 crore when he contested the Lok Sabha polls as a BSP candidate; the police say it was “a fraction of his assets”. The assets include a cold storage house,a hotel,several houses in South Mumbai,and a transport office on the premises of either port. Dayal said these were the means to show he had gone legitimate.

“We have begun an audit to account for every rupee. He has informed us now he has a mall in Allahabad,land elsewhere and many other assets not disclosed in the election affidavit,” Roy said. Shaikh is allegedly close to Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel.