Mumbai: Police recover AK-56, arms cache from Dawood gang member's house, wife arrested

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PUNE: In a major development, Thane police uncovered an arms cache from the house of Dawood Ibrahim crucial gang member Naim Fahim Khan in suburban Goregaon here. The house belonged to Khan's wife, Yasmin Naim Khan, who has now been arrested, said police on Saturday. 

An AK-56, three magazines, 95 cartridges, a 9 mm pistol and 13 live cartridges was seized by the Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) of Thane Police. The rifle was reportedly lying in the house for a long time.

Cops suspect that the AK-56 could be a part of weapons brought to Mumbai for 1993 serial blasts and riots.

“Yasmin Naim Khan (35), wife of Dawood Ibrahim gang member Naim Khan, was arrested following the raid on the couple's house yesterday," a senior official of Thane Police told news agency PTI.

Detectives are now questioning the wife as to why the weapons and ammunition were stored at the house, the official said.

She was produced before a Thane court which remanded her in police custody till July 11, he added. 

The cops acted on a tip-off by two drugs peddlers – Jahid Zali Shoukat Kashmiri (47) and Sanjay Shroff (47), who were arrested by the Thane AEC from Nagpada in central Mumbai two days ago. During interrogation, the duo pointed at 

Naim Khan was arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in 2016. He and some others had allegedly planned to kill Iqbal Attarwala, a former gang member, on the instructions of fugitive gangster Chhota Shakeel, the official said. They were arrested before the plan could be executed.Naim Khan is currently lodged in Thane prison, awaiting trial.

With PTI inputs