Super sleuth, who quizzed Dawood, says don confessed to crime

The super sleuth who interrogated India's most wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim has finally penned a book revealing the don was an ordinary looking coward person, who confessed that he was involved in (organised) crime.

Former Director General of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, B V Kumar, also known as the super sleuth of Indian customs, has revealed in his new book 'DRI and the Dons' that initial whereabouts of Dawood Ibrahim was disclosed to him by one Rasheed Arba, an alleged underworld figure married to the sister of famous Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.

Kumar said purpose of writing the book on underworld dons, particularly on Dawood Ibrahim and Haji Mastan, was to showcase DRI's matchless contribution in initiating tough action against most dreaded underworld syndicates of South Asia.

Kumar is one among a few Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers who led DRI as well as Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and had a wonderful career in which he crushed the notorious underworld syndicates of Mumbai. Remembering his encounter with Dawood, Kumar said that he was posted as Customs Commissioner in Ahmedabad in the mid-eighties. During that period a bloody gangland shootout between Dawood Ibrahim and Karim Lala gang had created a scare in the society, affecting peace in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Kumar writes in his book that one day while returning from Porbandar to Mumbai by car, Dawood was accidentally hit by a bullet fired by his aide, sitting in the rear seat of the vehicle. The don was taken to Baroda's Sayaji Hospital. Later during interrogation Dawood admitted that he was doing 'number do ka dhandha' (involved in illegal activities). "He was talking to me in Hindi.

I found him as an ordinary person who looked calm. The interrogation continued for half an hour at Dutta's office. I then returned to Ahmedabad and obtained a detention warrant against Dawood under COFEPOSA," said Kumar.

When asked how Dawood managed to become one of the most dangerous underworld dons in Asia, Kumar said that lack of political will seems to be the biggest reason for this.