Virtual collapse of administration in West Bengal

BATTLE FOR TRADE ROUTE

City caught in Dawood and Rajan’s drug war

Caesar Mandal TNN 31.10.2011

Kolkata:It is virtually a battle of supremacy between the notorious D gang and the one led by Chhota Rajan to gain control over international narcotics trade through Bengal. Much to the surprise of the country’s high-level intelligence and enforcement agencies, both the gangs are fast spreading their tentacles across the vast stretch of northeast and Bengal to control the billion-dollar racket of smuggling high-quality narcotics to several foreign countries through the eastern states. 
    Following the seizure of at least five bulk narco consignments in Kolkata, the specialized investigating agencies have reasons to believe that the ‘big children’ of the underworld are behind the trade, as all of the consignments were carrying marks of a highly professional gang. 
    Some time back, the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) Kolkata recovered expensive white sugar from a courier agency’s office in central Kolkata. The powder was put in small packets and stuffed inside diapers. The packet was supposed to go to South Africa. NCB officials tried their best to trace the sender of the pack, but all they could gather was that the consignment was sent from north-east India. 
    Within months, a similar consignment of white sugar was seized from another courier agency and that was supposed to go to Australia. This time also, a north-eastern state was the place of origin. In the following five months, three more consignments were confiscated and in all three cases, the modus operandi was similar. Sometimes the powder was hidden inside a religious book or in some cases, inside sanitary napkins. 
    Initially, the NCB investigators had reasons to believe that the notorious northeast narcotic smuggling gang was behind the consignments. But a detailed probe proved them wrong. “Two Kocharis, Pakhi Miya and Munna Musalman, were the key men behind most of the narcotic trade in northeast. But in recent times, their link was found nowhere in the 
trade,” said an intelligence official, who hinted that the recent modus operandi does not match the earlier gang’s work style. The recent work is more sophisticated and is definitely the brainchild of a more organized gang. 
    Intelligence officers have reasons to believe that a top gangster (read Chhota Rajan) has taken over the trade and is using Siliguri and Kolkata as major transit routes. And most importantly, the gang has planted its men in the city to handle the trade. The intelligence officers who now don’t want to disclose the name of the gangster just revealed that the key person has a stronghold in Nepal and his key aides are operating the entire trade from the neighbouring country. 
    Interestingly, Rajan, the arch rival of Dawood Ibrahim, has been camping in a south-east Asian country, but he has a strong network in Nepal. In the past one year, taking the opportunity of continuous split in Rajan’s gang, D-company had also tried to gain a strong foothold in Nepal, which sparked violent gang rivalry in the Himalayan state. 
    Sources said months ago, a Bangladeshi don who was arrested in Kolkata and later crossed into Nepal after being chased by Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force, has also joined hands with Rajan, after spending a few months in Nepal jail following massive crackdown on the fake currency racket. 
    Rajan, once the main weapon of Indian agencies to combat D-company, has now been abandoned. One of Rajan’s close aides, who was sent to Karachi in 2001 to assassinate Dawood, is now believed to be working for the Indian agencies. The youth has a family business in Kolkata and a few months ago he was in the city. 
    NCB officials admitted that during each seizure of white sugar, they got a specific tip-off from an unknown caller, which only suggests that someone close to the gang was behind the successful interception. 
    Gathering these pieces of information, intelligence officers have hinted that the gangs have already spread their tentacles in the city and at any point of time, the gangs may pave way for terror outfits.