A dinner conversation last week veered around to Mr. D, who as we know is India’s Most Wanted, has an Interpol Red Corner notice to his credit and recently made it to the top 5 of a US Terror List.
As always, Mr. D’s name was being bandied about as being the dark shadow behind the recent IPL spot fixing scandal and the giant betting syndicates that operate with impunity. In India, most organized crime is attributed to Mr. D. He is responsible for the most heinous acts of terror, extortion, kidnappings, killings, land grab, loan sharking…you name it and he’s our man for all seasons and all crimes.
The moot point of discussion was that whenever Mr. D’s name comes up, all the news channels always carry the same pictures of him sitting in the Sharjah Cup matches like the young Dude Don he was/is! These pictures are 20 years old at least. So how come no one has a more current picture?
We know, or are at least informed on good authority that Mr. D resides in Karachi, under a changed name and identity, with the blessings of the ISI and the Pakistani Government. We are also told that his criminal activities continue unabated, now on a global scale, and include drug trafficking, counterfeit currency and logistic support to Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist organizations. RAW and IB supposedly keep track of his activities as do their global counterparts, and now the CIA has joined the hunt.
Sure he has people to do his dirty work for him – popularly known as the D-Company – but for all the aides and associates, he must need to show himself somewhere, sometime in the last 20 years. His daughter wed Javed Miandad’s son in a highly publicised event – and yet, no Mr. D! With the world’s police on your trail and a life subject to the most intense media scrutiny, it’s amazing that no one has a recent happy-snappy
Maybe RAW and IB do, they’re just not sharing. Fair enough. But surely a news organization has the resources and the investigative ability to get recent images of the man. How hard can that be? Indian News Channels have in recent times unearthed all sorts of scams, gaining access to highly confidential government documents, tracking down accomplices from all parts of the world, joining the dots on the complicated shenanigans of the wiliest politicians – and yet, they can’t get an updated picture of India’s Most Wanted Criminal Ever?
What’s the real story? That Mr. D is just a figment of our imagination, kept alive by a corrupt governing class that uses him every time calamity strikes, like the quintessential bogey man? That Mr. D has undergone complete facial surgery, is not the same man anymore and relocated to South America a while back? That Mr. D has been long dead, but the idea of Mr. D is propped up by his D-Company associates to keep the business going? Or that Mr. D is super smart and super careful – and has managed to evade the unblinking gaze of the worlds’ most sophisticated law enforcement agencies and their ultra hi-tech electronic gear?
No matter the real truth, if Mr. D really exists, I think some newer, nicer pictures would just make for better journalism, don’t you think?
SAMEER NAIR 