Polls were on Dawood henchman hitlist

Interpol-tagged underworld element Rashid Malabari,who was arrested by the Mangalore police in a joint operation with intelligence agencies last week,was tasked with creating a sensation ahead of the Lok Sabha polls by targeting select political leaders.

Interpol-tagged underworld element Rashid Malabari,who was arrested by the Mangalore police in a joint operation with intelligence agencies last week,was tasked with creating a sensation ahead of the Lok Sabha polls by targeting select political leaders.

According to sources who listened to tapped phone conversations between underworld don Dawood Ibrahims henchman Chhota Shakeel and Malabari,who was based in Ullal,Mangalore over the last two months,no specific targets were outlined during the conversations.

However,after Malabaris location in Karnataka was pinpointed over the third week of March and the underworld operative was detained,he revealed that at least two prominent politicians were targets.

He was asked to create a sensation ahead of the elections. Malabari had been in India for over nine months after entering the country through Nepal. He travelled around to Mumbai and other places before coming to Mangalore, Director General of Police Ajay Kumar Singh said. He added Varun Gandhi could have been among the targets.

Malabari had initially been tasked by Shakeel with carrying out an extortion of Rs five crore from a Dubai businessman with roots in Udupi but had not been able to carry out the operation,senior Mangalore police officials said.

The operations that Malabari was planning seemed to be centred at Mangalore since he had raised a team of locals to help him out here, police sources said.

There is a conspiracy to assassinate some prominent persons in public life so as to disrupt the Lok Sabha election process, Mangalore Superintendent of Police Dr Subramanya Rao said.

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Police officials,however,did not go on record to name other possible political targets. Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muttalik and a hardline right-wing leader from the coastal Karnataka region were said to be possible targets.

Police sources this was being planned as a terrorist operation using underworld elements. It was a supari-type operation using handheld weapons to be carried out by underworld sharpshooters, a senior police official said.

Malabari has links with the Dawood gang going back to 1995 when he like the absconding Indian Mujahideen head Riaz Bhatkal was a key player in the Mumbai mafias hawala operations. The Karnataka Police have not ruled out links between Bhatkal and Malabari in the recent operation in Mangalore.

The 38-year-old Malabari has roots in the coastal Karnataka region but lived most of his life in Mumbai. Associated with Chhota Shakeel since 1995 after a meeting in Dubai,Malabari is accused in several shootout cases including the sensational attempt on rival underworld figure Chhota Rajan in Bangkok in 2000.

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Others arrested along with Malabari at Mangalore are three local youths: Sayyaf T A,a 25-year-old student,Mohammed Hasim,28,a truck driver and Sahib Ibrahim,28,a fisherman. Also arrested was a relative of Malabari,Sahil Ismail Sheikh,23,a real estate dealer from Thane in Maharashtra.

Malabari is alleged to have been in the receipt of funds through the hawala route to carry out operations in India following his return in 2008.