Investigators probing the firing on gangster Abu Salem in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail last week suspect that another one of Dawood’s trusted man was also involved in the operation. UAE-based Raju Bhai, the man who provided logistical support and the money for the operation, is said to be none other than one of Dawood’s oldest henchman Fahim Machmach. Meanwhile, the police also learnt that after the operation, the arms supplier Manoj Lahamane fled to Gujarat to avoid his arrest, but crime branch officials managed to trace him.
Crime branch sources said that it was Machmach who sent `5 lakhs supari to be paid to shooter Devendra Jagtap (JD) in Mumbai. It was also with his help that Lahamane was handed over a weapon at Mulund station on May 1. “Machmach provided logistical support on the instructions of Chhota Shakeel, who had been speaking to Jagtap in jail since April on the phone,” a crime branch official said.
Machmach, one of the key members of the D-company, is entrusted with extortion calls and recruitment of frontline shooters in the gang. He is known to have the uncanny skill of safely supplying arms to Dawood’s frontline shooters in Mumbai in the early 1990s. This was despite the fact he had never fired a single round in his life. His nickname Machmach is underworld lingo for one who talks too much.
Meanwhile, investigators also learnt that Lahamane destroyed the SIM card and the cellphone that he used to talk to Machmach and Chhota Shakeel after the operation.