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Alert in Bengal as forces now look for Chhota Shakeel

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

All police stations in West Bengal and units of Central Bureau of Investigation, Research and Analysis Wing and the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau have been alerted following the arrest of gangster Ashwin Naik and three accomplices at Bongaon on the Indo-Bangladesh border on Monday.

Naik, who is Dawood Ibrahim's enemy number one, and the three men have been remanded to ten days judicial custody. But a Delhi police team, which arrived in the city immediately after his arrest, took him away to Delhi this evening.

According to police sources, Naik's arrest was purely by chance. After being shot at by Dawood's men in a court in Bombay, Naik had become partially paralysed. A professionally qualified don, Naik maintained his cool at the border, but his two accomplices, A Mukherjee from Delhi and a Sikh from Guwahati who has connections to the Bombay film world, drew the attention of the Customs officials. The third person was a local tout trying to help them cross over to Bangladesh.

The Customs officers challenged them and upon conducting a search, found a large amount of foreign currency, incriminating documents and a number of mobile phones.

It was only after this that the Customs realised how big their catch was, and immediately informed the police and other law enforcement agencies.

Sources said during interrogation, Naik said he had long disassociated himself from the world of crime and during his stay in Guwahati had been trading in coal. However, he apprehended that his cover in Guwahati was blown and he was trying to reach Singapore via Bangladesh.

His plan was to settle down either in Thailand or Singapore.

However, the central intelligence agencies are trying to ascertain if Naik had any connections with the insurgent outfits of the north-east who have their men in Bangladesh.

Though Naik's wife, Neeta, had arrived in Bongaon along with lawyers from Bombay, the Delhi police acted fast and secured his custody since several cases are pending against him in the national capital as well.

Meanwhile, a Bombay police team has arrived in Calcutta to look for another don, Chhota Shakeel, who is also opposed to Dawood. Shakeel and two of his associates are supposed to go to Kathmandu from Hyderabad via Calcutta.

Sleuths of the Calcutta police along with their Bombay counterparts are maintaining a strong vigil at the airport and railway stations. What has become a matter of concern for the police is that Calcutta is increasingly becoming a conduit and shelter for dreaded criminals who are into organised crime in other parts of the country.

According to a senior police official of the state CID, "Lack of coordination with other state police forces and failure of intelligence collection have become our main problem. That Ashwin Naik was arrested purely by chance indicates our failure."

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