Rizvi reportedly received a death threat call in January. (File)
Salim Ahmed Ansari (42), who hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr, was employed as sewing worker in Dubai in 2017 where he faced a financial crisis and asked his employer, Nausad, to help him. That’s when he was introduced to Farooq Gani, who gave him 3,000 Dirhams (around Rs 56,000) so he could return to India. But there was a catch: In return, Ansari was allegedly asked to kill Wasim Rizvi, chairperson of the Shia Waqf Board. The revelation is part of a Delhi Police Special Cell chargesheet, filed recently in a Delhi court after the probe was completed. In April this year, police had arrested five suspected aides of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim on the charges of planning a conspiracy to kill Rizvi to spread communal disharmony in the country. Apart from Ansari, others were identified as Arif, Abrar, Mujeer Jilani Sheikh and Dharmendra Sharma.
“The arrests were made after investigators received inputs that Dawood’s associate Chhota Shakeel was planning some subversive activities in India. With the help of technical surveillance and their informers, police came to know that Rizvi and Arif were in frequent contact with a Dubai-based number. On March 19, a meeting was held between Ansari and Sharma in Delhi, where they also received some money from their hawala operator to execute an untoward incident,” police claimed in their chargesheet.
Ansari was arrested along with two associates on April 12 from Bulandshahr. During questioning, police claim, he admitted that he had been introduced to Gani in Dubai. “Gani later introduced him with two other persons — Faizal Mirza and Salim. After several meetings, Gani decided to help him, but asked him to eliminate Rizvi. After reaching India in March this year, Ansari approached his friend Arif, who introduced him to Sharma and Abrar. Ansari carried out a recce of Rizvi’s office in Lucknow, acquired weapons and was in the process of executing the plan. He was regularly in touch with a contact, whose name is saved in his cell-phone as D-Bhai, and was taking instructions from him,” police claimed in their chargesheet.
Sources said Rizvi had received a death threat call in January, allegedly from a member of Dawood’s gang, who threatened to murder him and his family if he failed to withdraw some of his recent statements.