Sunday March 29, 2009, early morning 2:27 am, Talapady, checkpost in Kasaragod District on the Karnataka-Kerala border, witnessed intense action. Police Special Squad members drawn from Udupi and Dakshina Kannada District Police, co-ordinating with state and intelligence agencies, intercepted a vehicle. On search, the police recovered a pistol with ammunition and lethal weapons concealed in the car. Occupants in the vehicle were, Sayyaf (25), a student, Mohammed Hashim (28) from Kasaragod and Ibrahim (27) from Kapu in Udupi district, who during interrogation, confessed to carrying a detailed survey under instructions from Rashid Malabari. Based on the information furnished by the trio, special team raided a place in Kasaragod town and arrested Sahil Ismail Sheikh (23) and the prize catch Rashid Malabari.

On the Interpol’s Notified List, Rashid Malabari, nicknamed “Double”, used to move around with a Chinese made 9 mm pistol, gifted to him by the don Chhota Shakeel. Rashid Malabari was involved in a string of shoot-outs, including the attempt on the life of fugitive don Chhota Rajan in Bangkok in 2000. His forte was contract killings, transporting firearms and ammunition, Hawala money, and SIM cards. Malabari used to travel extensively, for his operations, visiting the Gulf and South-East Asian countries besides China with the help of fake documents.

Rashid Malabari first came into contact with Chhota Shakeel, who worked for Dawood Ibrahim gang, in 2005. He got into the Hawala business to help gang members meet legal expenses and bail them out from legal troubles.

In a crime career of over 13 years, he had seen many ups and downs. Rashid’s brothers Ismail and Sajid were shot dead in Mumbai in 1996. He committed his first murder with the shooting of Vilas, an associate of Mohan Kotian, in 1996. In the following year, he was part of Chhota Shakeel’s gang that killed Hussain Vasta, an informant of Chhota Rajan. In 1998, he shot Prashant and John in Baikampady, in Mangaluru. On instructions from Dawood, he shot Balu Dokre, a close aide of Chhota Rajan in Kuala Lumpur in 2005. Rashid was also involved in the 1998 shootout in K G Halli, in Karnataka, which nearly triggered a communal clash. Rashid Malabari was also close to notorious criminals like Munna Jhingada and Salim Chikna.

Intercepts picked up by the Intelligence Bureau suggested that Malabari, was camping in Mangaluru and later shifted base to Kasaragod in Kerala, for executing the specific task of eliminating MP Varun Gandhi and Ram Sene Chief Pramod Mutalik, in order to disrupt the Lok Sabha elections. According to the report, Rashid Malabari told security agencies that Shakeel asked him to go to Bangkok and he was given flight tickets, documentation and $2,000 for the operation. Malabari later fled to Cambodia and then to Pakistan after the attempt to kill Chhota Rajan failed, according to the report. Although Chhota Rajan escaped, he was badly hurt, and his key aide Rohit Sharma was killed in the attack. But Malabari shot to prominence after this attack.

His long criminal career saw him develop links with underworld fugitives, Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Tiger Memon, and Abu Salem. He made a career of threatening rich persons and extorting money from them. Malabari had carried out several crimes, including the kidnap of several builders and contractors in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Belagavi and other surrounding areas. In the process of committing the crimes, Malabari was able to rope in several youths from Belagavi into his gang who later got involved in kidnapping and killing for ransom. 

His life story, given to the Karnataka Police, makes a very interesting reading. 

“I hail from Maharashtra’s Thane district and used to stay at room no. 202 Kulsoom Apartments. I used to stay at this above-mentioned place with my wife Zohra and my son Azhar. I studied up to 5th standard at Mumbai’s Govan Diya Shivaji school. I dropped out after 5th standard. Later at the age of 14, I went to Dubai to work with Ismail, who is my sister Hajira’s husband.

My parents are from Udupi, my father used to work in Mumbai hotels for a living. My mother Zainabee was my father’s third wife. My father has 8 children with her. We used to stay at Mumbai’s Dongri place. After my father’s death in 1975, we moved to Ghatkopar.

When I was young I used to work as a coolie at the bus stands, Later I started working at tea shops, I wanted to earn more money so I started distributing milk door to door. When I was 13 years old I started my own tea shop. Later after my sister Hajira got married to Ismail, he made my passport and took me to Dubai within 6 months of their wedding.

I went to Dubai and worked as a salesman in an Ice cream company Um-al-queen. My brother, Ismail, used to get caught in street brawls and land up in jail very often. I was aware of this fact. I used to work as a mechanic at a garage in Dubai. One day a friend C.K. Sharif borrowed Rs 15,000 from me, saying he would return the money once he got back from India, but he did not return it. So we had a fight. I was sent to jail in Dubai for 25 days. Then I paid a fine of Rs 10,000 and got out of jail.
When I got out of jail, my manager at the ice cream company was not happy with me, he warned me that I would be sacked, then I took leave for 25 days and came back to Mumbai in 1990.

In 1992 I got married to Zohra, whose parents were from a place called Kaup (Kapu) in Udupi district. During this time my brother was released. He was again arrested in 1994 and detained under MISA.
We needed money to get him out. I was tired of my brothers’ crime record. I had no money. This was affecting my married life with my wife. My brother and I had differences over this. I left home with my wife and settled in Kerala for some time. But, again my mother called me after six months and said I should be with her, so we moved back to Mumbai.

I had to get my brother out. But there was no money, he was put up in Arthur's jail. One day when I went to meet him at the jail he gave me the contact number of Dawood’s assistant Chhota Shakeel. He said Chhota Shakeel would help me and arrange for his release. I contacted Chhota Shakeel who was at Dubai. He spoke to me on the phone and agreed to arrange for my brother’s bail, and also gave us some money.

I had no job, my family was in need of money. I wanted to work. I decided to join Chhota Shakeel’s gang. Ismail told me not to work with them but I did not listen to him. Initially, I was given the task of handing over hawala money to certain people in Mumbai, and I also had to transport weapons in Mumbai, among the gang members. I was also given a 9 mm Chinese pistol for my own security. Since then I have been carrying this pistol along with me.

In 1997, Chhota Shakeel called me and asked me to threaten a builder from Navi Mumbai. This was my first big assignment. I waited near his house for three days, then I attacked him and fired 4 bullets, one bullet hit him, I was scared, I ran away from there.

Till then no one knew I was working with Chhota Shakeel, now it became a fact as the police were searching for me after this incident. In September 1997, my brother Sajid who was in Dubai with my sister came to Mumbai for a vacation. When he went to BDD chawl at Mumbai Central, some gangmen of Chhota Rajan killed my brother and cut his head. I could not claim his body as I feared arrest after the incident with the builder. This was a turning point in my life. I left Mumbai and stayed in Kerala for a year.

10 members of the Chhota Rajan Gang attacked my brother Ismail, who was being taken to Court. I found out that I knew one of the killers, John. Chhota Rajan had sent John to kill me and my friend Mastan in Kerala too. We came to know of this plan and fled from Kerala. I informed Chhota Shakeel about my brother’s murder. Chhota Shakeel told me to shoot John and his associate Prashanth.

Then we made plans to kill them at Mangaluru we followed them at Mangaluru railway station. Finally, we killed them at Mangaluru. Mastan and I shot at John and Prashanth and fled in an auto. We informed Chhota Shakeel about it on the phone. This was my biggest success. I was satisfied that I had avenged my brother.

From there we fled to Tamil Nadu and then we returned to Bangalore. Chhota Shakeel told us to stay in Bangalore with one Salauddin. Later Chhota Shakeel gave me an assignment to kill Chhota Rajan’s gang members. I killed Hussain Vastra, a member of Chhota Rajan’s gang, then Chhota Shakeel asked me to come to Dubai.

In 1999, I went to Dubai with a fake name Abdul Lateef, I rested for some time. Shakeel gave me money to spend and I stayed with my sister. In 2000 I set out to kill Chhota Rajan on instructions from Chhota Shakeel. I was asked to co-ordinate with Yusuf in Bangkok. I was given three pistols which I fired and checked. It worked well.

I stayed in a farmhouse in Bangkok called Phetchaburi for some time. Shakeel told us to follow Chhota Rajan, saying Rajan would visit a five-star hotel and we could kill him there. Chhota Rajan’s gang members Rohit Verma was also with him. We waited at the hotel but they did not turn up. We let it go on for 6 days.

One day we saw Chhota Rajan and his associate Jhinda, but we had no pistols on hand. We told Chhota Shakeel that we had spotted him. Luckily Chhota Rajan stayed near the same place as we stayed.

Nine of us planned to murder Chhota Rajan. Four people along with Munna Jhingada went up to the plot. When he rang the doorbell, Rohit Verma opened the door. Jhingada killed him. We all started firing, but Chhota Rajan was in his bedroom, he got away through a window, by the time we opened the bedroom door he had escaped. We stayed quiet for the next six months.

In 2005, Chhota Shakeel asked me to go to Kuala Lumpur and kill Chhota Rajan’s gang member Baalu Dongre. Baalu Dongre was a close associate of Chhota Rajan. I stabbed Dongre, and returned to Dubai.”

Despite his notoriety and involvement in large number of cases he escaped the police dragnet in India and abroad for over 13 years. After he was released from the Bengaluru Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara, on bail, he escaped and fled the country in dramatic style. He was arrested in Abu Dhabi, for using a fake Bangladeshi passport. He continues to be there.

Though Rashid Malabari fled, his enemies took revenge by shooting his lawyer, Naushad Kasim, who held brief for Malabari. The lawyer was gunned down by unidentified persons in the Falnir area of Mangaluru. According to eyewitnesses, Naushad was walking when the attack occurred. After he was shot, Naushad ran at least 200 metres before collapsing in an apartment's parking.

Rashid Malabari continues to live dangerously, a formidable assassin, with a troubled past and an uncertain future. He has to navigate his remaining days through a web of deceit, betrayal, and danger, entangled in a clandestine underworld, where shadowy figures and hidden agendas lurk at every turn.  As actress Natalya Vorobyova puts it “Assassins: they got sass and live on sin.”

The author is former Director General of National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics