Danish Chikna arrested: India’s most-wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim’s associate Danish Merchant alias Danish Chikna, was arrested in Mumbai on Friday in connection with drug operations.
He was arrested along with his associate Kader Gulam Sheikh, reported NDTV on Sunday. Merchant used to allegedly manage the drug operations of Dawood Ibrahim in the Dongri area in Mumbai.
Both Merchant and Sheikh were arrested after a long investigation that started with the arrest of Mohammed Ashikur Sahidur Rahman and Rehan Shakeel Ansari last month.
On November 8, a series of arrests began after the police got hold of Rahman near Marine Lines Station with 144 grams of drugs. Rahman disclosed that the drugs were procured from Ansari in Dongri during interrogation. Following his revelation, the police caught Ansari and seized nearly 55 grams of narcotics. Later, Ansari revealed that the drugs were procured from Danish Merchant and Qadir Fanta, one of the associates, the report said.
After Ansari’s revelation, for several weeks, the police were searching for Merchant and Fanta. They found both of them in the Dongri area on Friday through a tip-off. Both Merchant and Fanta confessed their involvement in the drug case.
However, this is not the first time the Merchant has been associated with a drug racket. In 2021, Merchant was arrested by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and was found to possess 200 grams of hashish, according to an IndiaToday report.
He was accused in two drug-related cases by NCB. The NCB had probed a drug laboratory in Mumbai in March 2021. Merchant, who was accused of being involved in the operation, had fled to Rajasthan. His name cropped up after Dawood Ibrahim’s associates Chinku Pathan and Arif Bhujwala were interrogated.
Reportedly, Danish Merchant is the son of Yusuf Merchant, also known as Yusuf Chikna, a Dongri-based gangster who was associated with the Dawood Ibrahim gang in the 1980s and 1990s.
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