Blood spills on to cyberstreet as `chhota’ dons turn net savvy

MUMBAI, OCT 27: If the bullets don't get them, the net will. That's what gangster Chhota Shakeel did last week, after he failed to gun dow...

MUMBAI, OCT 27: If the bullets don’t get them, the net will. That’s what gangster Chhota Shakeel did last week, after he failed to gun down Chhota Rajan in Bangkok on September 14. He launched a website that promises to reward any person or intelligence agency a sum of US $ 1 lakh for providing information on Rajan and his gang.

Not to be outdone, Rajan has now launched his own site that offers US $ 10 lakh to whoever kills Shakeel’s montor Dawood Ibrahim, Shakeel himself and others involved in anti-India operations such as the march 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.

“Believe me, I will deliver the amount forthwith. Mail me at saveindiafromisi@yahoo.com,” states Rajan’s website, obviously aimed at head-hunting buccaneers and freelance hitmen — if they are willing to believe this web spiel.

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With this, gangwars appear to have spilled on to the info-streets of the world wide web. Apart from the `contract killings’ on offer, both gangsters have also been taking point-blank shots at each other using colourful language and at times, creative accusations.

While Shakeel’s site (site.yahoo.com/earn1lakhdollars) accuses Rajan of being communal and having links with the Indian intelligence agencies; Rajan has called himself a `patriotic don’ at site.yahoo.com/saveindiafromisi.

The Indian flag is also prominently displayed on the website of Rajan, who has categorically denied having any links with the Intelligence Bureau or the Research and Analysis Wing. “It is a rumour spread by some b****** in journalism, who along with some cops are on the payrole (sic) of anti-national criminals,” states the appeal of the `patriotic don’ who wants to `save India from ISI’.

Some of the `most wanted’ heads named in the Rajan site are: Tiger Memon, Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Anees Ibrahim, Sharad Shetty, Noora Kaskar and Tausif Jalliwala. Shakeel’s list on the web includes Guru Satam and O P Singh, besides Rajan himself.

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While the police has taken cognisance of the two sites, there is little else the authorities say they can do. “We still do not know if the sites have really been launched by the gangsters, since anybody can put up anything on the net. However, no sane person will believe the fantastic money offered by the underworld dons,” says a senior Mumbai police official. The remark is the authorities’ only defence against its own powerlessness about tracing the promoters till now.

Neither has there been any attempt to jam the sites. “Propaganda on the net is an old trick used by terrorist outfits ever since Internet became a popular medium. With nearly 400 million Internet users today, it is certainly tempting for criminals to have themselves heard like this, without any worries of censorship,” shrugs an IT professional.

Surprisingly, Rajan’s website has also taken a shot at some of the Pakistani officials posted at the Kathmandu embassy in Nepal, for their alleged involvement in anti-Indian and anti-Nepalese activities including the hijack of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in December last year.

The site mentions, among others, the name of a wing commander officer of the Pakistani Air Force, who once allegedly headed the ISI in Lahore. It also names a few Nepali journalists for their alleged anti-India operations.