Forty-three-year old Arif Abu Bakar Sheikh, alias Arif Bhaijan, the only big catch among the 10 Dubai-based gangsters handed to the Mumbai police Tuesday, will not be with the Crime Branch for long. For, the Ahmedabad police is preparing to take him into custody in connection with sending youths to Bangladesh for terror training after the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Mumbai police custody of Bhaijan, who is the brother-in-law of Chhota Shakeel, ends on November 30. In the terror training case, Bhaijan has been identified as one of the prime absconding accused, along with two other Karachi-based Dawood gang members -- Sharif Khan Pathan, alias Bawa alias Chhota Dawood, and Rasool Khan Pathan, alias Rasool Party.

“We have got a warrant against him from the POTA court and will be sending a team to Mumbai to arrest him and bring him here after his custody with the Mumbai police ends. He is a big catch,” said DCP (Crime) Manoj Shahishar.

Investigations by the Ahmedabad police crime branch has revealed that Bhaijan, then based in Mumbai, had at the behest of Sharif Khan and Rasool Khan, made arrangements for the travel of 11 Ahmedabad-based and five Hyderabad-based youths to terror camps in Bangladesh in the aftermath of the 2002 riots.

Sharif Khan and Rasool Khan fled to Pakistan after Ahmedabad don Abdul Latif, a close aide of Dawood, died in a police encounter in October 1998. Among the 11 he sent to Bangladesh, five were arrested by the Ahmedabad police on April 4, 2003. This blew the cover of Bhaijan’s module. Subsequent investigations revealed that this module provided local logistical support in the killing of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya on March 23, 2003, allegedly executed by a Hyderabad-based module.

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