MUMBAI: Chhota Shakeel gangster “phone operator” Fahim Machmach, who issued extortion threats on instructions from the former, was reportedly killed by Covid-19 in Karachi on Friday night.
Sources reported that Machmach (51), who was admitted a few days ago with severe respiratory problems to a private hospital in Karachi after testing positive for Covid-19, died on Friday of multiple organ failure. Sources said he was buried Saturday in Karachi. Shakeel summoned his family who are staying at Peeru Lane in Imambara, near Sir JJ Hospital and conveyed the message of his death.
“Yes, we also have information about his death in Karachi due to Covid. We are waiting for more details,” a police officer in Mumbai said.
Fahim Shaikh, alias Machmach, was wanted by Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat police in more than two dozen cases. Sources said that although he was involved in one of two attacks against former Mumbai Mayor Milind Vaidya on Mahim in 1999, he fled the country and only went under the scanner for the first time in 2003 when he called a builder in southern Mumbai and mistreated him on behalf of Shakeel for refusing to pay.
Later, when the crime branch arrested four members of Chhota Shakeel, it was revealed that Machmach had also been involved in the attack on Shakeel’s behalf. A former meeting specialist said there was a plan to eliminate him at a meeting in 2001. Fahim’s style of annoying victims gave him the nickname Machmach. After police began searching for Machmach in the Vaidya case, he fled to Dubai and later moved to Karachi with Shakeel.
When Dawood was expanding its business in the UAE, the band needed someone who could manage Mumbai’s operations and Shakeel introduced Machmach who began calling on Mumbai’s targets. Machmach allegedly threatened a female activist in Bombay, but police arrested the shooters and thwarted his plans.
“Dawood and his brother Anees Ibrahim were upset when he tried to resolve a financial dispute between two traders and led to the arrest of Dawood’s nephew (son of Iqbal Kaskar), Mohammed Rizwan Kaskar. He had to take a flies to Dubai, when the arrest took place.
Sources reported that Machmach (51), who was admitted a few days ago with severe respiratory problems to a private hospital in Karachi after testing positive for Covid-19, died on Friday of multiple organ failure. Sources said he was buried Saturday in Karachi. Shakeel summoned his family who are staying at Peeru Lane in Imambara, near Sir JJ Hospital and conveyed the message of his death.
“Yes, we also have information about his death in Karachi due to Covid. We are waiting for more details,” a police officer in Mumbai said.
Fahim Shaikh, alias Machmach, was wanted by Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat police in more than two dozen cases. Sources said that although he was involved in one of two attacks against former Mumbai Mayor Milind Vaidya on Mahim in 1999, he fled the country and only went under the scanner for the first time in 2003 when he called a builder in southern Mumbai and mistreated him on behalf of Shakeel for refusing to pay.
Later, when the crime branch arrested four members of Chhota Shakeel, it was revealed that Machmach had also been involved in the attack on Shakeel’s behalf. A former meeting specialist said there was a plan to eliminate him at a meeting in 2001. Fahim’s style of annoying victims gave him the nickname Machmach. After police began searching for Machmach in the Vaidya case, he fled to Dubai and later moved to Karachi with Shakeel.
When Dawood was expanding its business in the UAE, the band needed someone who could manage Mumbai’s operations and Shakeel introduced Machmach who began calling on Mumbai’s targets. Machmach allegedly threatened a female activist in Bombay, but police arrested the shooters and thwarted his plans.
“Dawood and his brother Anees Ibrahim were upset when he tried to resolve a financial dispute between two traders and led to the arrest of Dawood’s nephew (son of Iqbal Kaskar), Mohammed Rizwan Kaskar. He had to take a flies to Dubai, when the arrest took place.