Mumbai cops made foolproof arrangements. "The quick response team (QRT) of the Central Industrial Security Force was asked to provide cover," said an airport source. "A crime branch team cordoned off the entire area where the flight was supposed to land to ensure that he could not escape like Kim Davy in the Purulia arms drop case. Immigration officials were also alerted," he added.
But to the surprised crime branch landed a prize catch as, this man turned out to be a worker at an old age home in London instead of the underworld don who has made the name infamous.
"Security officials were in panic mode inside the airport as the police
team took up positions," said an airport security official.
As soon as the Virgin Atlantic flight from London landed at 12.35 pm, crime branch officials detained a bearded passenger bearing a passport with the name, Dawood Ibrahim.
The man protested vehemently but to no avail. Immigration officials, who must have unblinkingly waved through thousands of passengers named Dawood Ibrahim in the two decades since the underworld don's name has been on the look-out notice, refused to take any chances this time.
"He was taken to the crime branch headquarters for closer scrutiny. Since he sported a beard and was of the same build as his namesake from Nagpada, the cops were baffled," said a security official.
At the headquarters, a floor above the cell holding Ajmal Kasab, the 26/11 terrorist taken alive, 'Dawood Ibrahim' was grilled by the same officers who had once dealt with the one-time petty criminal. Fingerprints were matched. All the other details and data that the crime branch had on the underworld don was matched with the passenger's documents.
The man kept insisting that he was not the same Dawood and had come to attend a wedding in Gujarat but the sleuths were in no mood to listen. "We checked his entire family background and also quizzed his relatives in Thane," said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner in charge of the crime branch.
The crime branch said they were acting on a tip-off. No one knows whether it came from intelligence agencies or airport officials who chanced upon the name in the passenger list. The Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said that the airline was not informed about any such tip-off regarding their passenger.
Dawood Ibrahim was let off in the evening after six hours of verification, another victim of Indian intelligence.
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