New Delhi: Kenyan food import company, ‘Magnum Africa’ is operating out of Nairobi. This company has rekindled the hopes of officials in RAW of locating Tiger Memon. It should be stated here that Tiger Memon is one of India’s most sought after fugitives. He is the mastermind of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. The series blasts killed 257 people in one of the worst ever terror attacks in the sub-continent. For the past five years, the elusive Tiger Memon involved in drug trafficking, has been literally off the radar of Intel agencies.
Tracking ‘Magnum Africa’s dealings in Pakistan has disclosed some vital information. RAW officials have come to know that the company under the garb of trade in grains is involved in international drug trafficking. On paper, Magnum imported high quality rice and other grains from Pakistan but its real deals were related to narcotics.
Tracking a 35kg heroin deal, smuggled from Karachi into India, the police caught Abdul Majid alias Moosa in February 2020. Moosa, an accused in serial blasts, is considered Memon’s right hand man. He was arrested at the Mumbai airport while he was on his way to Dubai from Nairobi. Moosa’s subsequent interrogation shed light on Memon’s whereabouts.
There is a dossier on the ‘Tiger of Terror’. It says the 59-year-old Memon sought help from Dawood Ibrahim to execute serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.
Dawood’s specific addresses in Karachi have been traced. However, Memon remains almost unheard of, untraceable thus elusive.
“We have enough evidence against Dawood’s presence in Karachi, but we have little information to go on in Memon’s case. He is the prime accused…,” said Ujjwal Nikam, the chief prosecutor in the case of the serial blasts.
Last time when police traced Memon, it was in July 2015. He had called his mother in Mumbai. The call was made hours before his younger brother Yakub was hanged for his role in the Mumbai serial blasts.
In the three minute conversation with his mother, Memon had vowed to avenge the hanging of Yakub. Since then Memon has not been heard of.
“We have sent several Interpol notices to Pakistan to track and arrest Memon. But there was not even a whisper from the other side. On our files, Memon, the mastermind of the serial blasts, is an absconder.
“Though the trial has ended, we still await his arrest. The moment he is caught, a fresh charge sheet would be filed. It would be done on the basis of the evidence already placed before the court,” said Nikam. He is the special public prosecutor in several leading terror cases, including the Mumbai bombings.
Sources said that after the Mumbai blasts, Memon escaped to Pakistan and lived in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal area. Later on he shifted his base to the posh Defence Housing Area in the same city. Dawood and his brother Anees Ibrahim also live in Karachi. Sources however, said that Memon and the ‘D company’ have separate businesses.
Memon is mostly involved in drug trafficking. He has also launched a few prime construction projects in Karachi. Apart from organised crime operations, Memon also runs guest houses and hotels in Dubai.