‘Dawood Ibrahim also wanted to surrender’

NEW DELHI: Dawood Ibrahim's former lawyer, Shyam Keswani, made a startling revelation on Friday when he said that the underworld don had all intentions of surrendering and had, at that time, sought the same conditions as are currently being given to Chhota Rajan.

Quoting an earlier statement by Ram Jethmalani, Keswani said both Dawood and his close associate Chhota Shakeel had wanted to surrender, their only condition being that they didn't want to be lodged at Mumbai's Arthur Road jail.

Jethmalani had earlier said that the then chief minister of Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar, had rejected Dawood's offer of surrender. The senior lawyer (Jethmalani) also said that the rejection did not just come from Pawar alone, but also from the UPA government at the Centre.

Dawood, according to Jethmalani, had wanted to return to India on condition of being under house arrest rather than in jail. This was because he feared for his life.

Jethmalani had said Dawood also wanted a guarantee from the government that he wouldn't be subjected to third-degree torture by the police, and also pleaded innocence in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

Jethmalani's comments followed a report in The Times of India, in which Chhota Shakeel also spoke of Dawood's intentions to return to India, and had referred to a conversation between the don and Jethmalani in London.

This theory is also corroborated by former Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar who, in May this year, claimed that Dawood Ibrahim had wanted to surrender but the CBI at that time did not agree to it.