CBI arrests Dawood aide Farooq Takla from Delhi airport

Farooq Takla, an aide of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was today arrested here by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, officials said.

Mohammed Farooq, better known as Farooq Takla, arrived here from Dubai and was arrested by the CBI when he was at an immigration counter at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Farooq, 57, will be produced before a designated court later today, a CBI spokesman said.

While the CBI declined to comment on how he reached Delhi as an Interpol red Corner notice was pending against him, officials said Farooq was deported from the UAE with the help of central intelligence agencies and put on a flight to Delhi.

The role of Farooq in the D-company was not clear, but some officials said that he used to look after the Dubai operations of the



underworld don.Farooq has been taken to Mumbai where he would be produced before the designated court hearing the case of 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai that shook the financial capital of the country leaving 257 dead besides damaging property to the tune of Rs 82 crore.

Immediately after the blasts, Dawood, who was the main accused in the case, and others escaped to Dubai and later to Pakistan.India's sustained campaign against Dawood was finally acknowledged by America in 2003 when the US Treasury department declared him a global terrorist having links with al-Qaeda. He also faces sanctions from the United Nations under its anti-terror resoution.

Vindicating India's position that Pakistan has been sheltering Dawood, the Treasury Department had said he was in Karachi and possessed a Pakistani passport under the individual category.