The Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Tuesday night arrested fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s nephew Sajid Gulam Mohammed Wagle (37) for allegedly threatening a person, committing extortion and wrongful restraint. According to the police, Wagle had allegedly threatened an Internet connection supplier with dire consequences in order to secure a partnership in the business. The police have also arrested Wagle’s bodyguard and employee Rafique Adam Sathi (25) on similar charges.Wagle, a resident of Gunpowder Road in Mazgaon, is the son of Dawood’s deceased elder sister, Saeda. He has a brother and two sisters. Wagle and Sathi have been remanded to police custody till March 10. They were arrested on a complaint lodged at the Crime Branch Unit 1 by the Internet connection supplier.“Wagle is himself in the business of providing Internet connections between Dongri and Mazgaon. His office is located at Fatima Manzil on Nishant Pada Road in Dongri. On March 9, he threatened another Internet connection supplier and told him that he and his family would face dire consequences if he did not enter into a partnership with him,” said Rakesh Maria, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).Maria added: “The complainant stopped going to office for some time. On March 21, when he went to his office, he was once again threatened by Wagle and Sathi. They handed him a partnership agreement and asked him to sign it, after which he approached the police. After inquiries were conducted, a case was registered and both accused were arrested late last night.” According to Senior Police Inspector Ramesh Mahale of Crime Branch Unit 1, “Wagle has provided about 125 Internet lines, while the complainant has about 325. Wagle demanded that the complainant pay him Rs 50 per month for each of his Internet lines.” Wagle had been arrested in March 1999 for allegedly trying to extort Rs 1 crore from a city businessman identified as Girish Mathlia. The co-accused in the case were Mohammed Ismael Mohammed Salim and Mohammed Shamim Qureshi. While the former is Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar’s driver, the latter is her bodyguard. The case has been charge-sheeted by the police, with the next hearing in April.
