Modi Rubbers director held
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 26 — The Delhi Police has arrested a senior director of Modi Rubbers on charges of extortion and intimidation through underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s alleged frontman and politician Romesh Sharma, who was recently nabbed in the city.

According to sources, Ashok Malik was arrested by the south district police yesterday for allegedly getting his cousin Romesh Malik intimidated through Dawood’s henchmen to get a posh Chirag Enclave property vacated. Ashok Malik had allegedly contacted Romesh Sharma to use his connections in Dubai to get his cousin intimidated to vacate the property.

Ashok Malik has been remanded to 14 days of judicial custody and another case of criminal intimidation has been registered against Romesh Sharma by the police.

Romesh Malik had registered a case of intimidation at the Lajpat Nagar police station against his cousin who, he said, had been using his underworld connections to force him to vacate his property at Chirag Enclave.

Romesh Sharma, sources said, had allegedly contacted Abu Salem, a henchman of Dawood Ibrahim, to threaten Romesh Malik, who was subsequently warned of dire consequences if he failed to vacate the property.

The police had arrested the property dealer-turned politician-Romesh Sharma last week for grabbing prime properties across the Capital, which were also allegedly used by Dawood Ibrahim to set up his base in the city.

A joint team of the Delhi Police, the Income Tax Department, CBI, Excise and the Wildlife Department had raided the C-30, Mayfair Garden of Romesh Sharma residence on Wednesday night. The police recovered documents of property estimated to be worth about Rs 500 crore and a helicopter from his Chattarpur farmhouse.

The team recovered documents indicating that he was a frontman for the Dubai-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Joint Commissioner of Police, southern range, Mr Amod Kanth had then said, "Sharma did sundry jobs at Sadar Bazaar 20 years ago. Though we have recovered enormous assets from his house, he still has no known source of income. We suspect that Sharma might have made this kind of money from his Dubai connections.

Sharma had contested the 1996 Lok Sabha elections from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh as an Independent candidate. He had also floated a new political outfit called the Bharatiya Congress Party just three months ago.

From Sharma’s house, the police seized imported cars, including a two-seater Honda convertible, a Pajero, three Mercedes, a BMW, a Toyota, a Chevrolet and a Mitsubishi Lancer with a combined worth of Rs 4 crore.

The team also recovered documents of Sharma’s 1.5 acre plot at Mumbai’s Juhu beach, 200 acres of farmland at Faridabad and his Jai Mata Di farmhouse at Chattarpur. The raiding team had recovered documents and keys of 11 properties in the Capital and five in Mumbai.

The police said most of these properties had been forcefully occupied and their ownership papers signed under duress. In fact, Sharma’s modus operandi of acquiring property was to hire it (in case of cars) or occupy it temporarily (in case of houses or land) and never return it to the owner. If the property owner created a ruckus, he was threatened with death.

Other items that had been seized included shares worth Rs 1 crore, FDRs amounting to Rs 23.5 lakh, imported liquor worth Rs 1 lakh, .32 bore Smith and Wesson and tiger, leopard and deer skins.

Wildlife experts certified that all these animals fell in the Schedule — I of the Wildlife Act. Illegal possession of these skins was punishable with a six-year prison term. The income-tax authorities confiscated jewellery and gold vessels estimated to be worth about Rs 50 lakh.

The Joint Commissioner of Police, southern range, said after Sharma’s arrest, two more persons had lodged complaints against him, claiming that he had extorted huge amounts of money and had forcibly occupied their property.

While Mr M.K. Subba, MP, claimed that the sprawling Chattarpur farmhouse belonged to him, Laxmi Givnani claimed that Sharma’s C-30 Mayfair Gardens house was also forcefully taken away from him.

The nine cases against Sharma include that of kidnapping and illegal confinement, illegal possession of arms, liquor, animal skins, two cases of cheating and two cases of extortion and fraud.

Romesh Sharma’s political career began in 1970s when he joined the Socialist Party. In 1982-83, Sharma joined Lok Dal of Chaudhary Charan Singh, became organisation's general secretary in a short span of five months and in 1985, he joined Maneka Gandhi’s "Sanjay Vichar Manch" after shifting his base from Mumbai to Delhi.

Sharma in 1987 joined Congress and also headed the farmer’s cell of the party. He contested the parliamentary election as an independent candidate in 1996 after the Congress denied him ticket. Sharma lost his security deposit.

In 1997, he joined Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) and this year he floated his own political outfit, Bharatiya Congress Party. He was also heading two other organisations — Akhil Bharatiya Kaumi Ekta Manch and International Youth Unity Centre.