The crime branch officials on Monday said that the passport used by Dawood gang member Muzakkir Mudassar Hussain Sayyed, alias Munna Zingada, to enter Bangkok will hold the key to prove his nationality.
Both India and Pakistan are seeking extradition of Zingada who is set to be released from a Bangkok jail after serving a sentence for attacking Chhota Rajan there in 2001.
Two officers from the crime branch had to be rushed to Bangkok after the ministry of external affairs asked them to submit documents proving his criminal antecedents in the country and his nationality as Pakistani authorities had also sought his extradition claiming that he was a Pakistani national. Born in Uttar Pradesh and later raised in Jogeshwari, Zingada had left India in 1997.
“We have given documents like the school leaving certificate of Zingada and even a college application form that Zingada had himself filled in his own handwriting to the Thai government along with the documents related to his crimes,” said a senior crime branch officer.
According to the officer, Zingada had sneaked into Nepal in 1997 through the porous border and from there had been to Dubai. “We do not know which passport he had used to go to Dubai. He was with the D gang in Dubai between 1998-2000. He was then sent to Bangkok to eliminate Rajan,” he said.
The officer said that records at the Bangkok airport can ascertain which passport he had used to enter the country.
When asked whether the DNA samples of his parents who reside in Mumbai would not help in proving his nationality, the officer said, “Nationality cannot be proved by this as a person may have born in a particular country and have a family there, but he can become a national of some other country as well. But for this he has to voluntarily give up his Indian nationality and apply for Pakistan nationality,” he said.