MUMBAI: Fifty years ago when Ibrahim Benji named his second son Dawood, little did he imagine the trouble it would cause.
D company wasn’t even a thought then. Today, Benji bears the cross of a gangster’s name — he has to put up with queer glances every time he tells people his name.
A name isn’t the only thing he shares with the don Dawood Ibrahim who is reportedly holed up in Pakistan. Both are Konkani Muslims hailing from Ratnagiri; in fact their villages are just a few kilometres apart.
Gangster Dawood had six brothers, the eldest of whom, Shabbir, was shot dead in 1981 by a rival gang. This Dawood too had six brothers, the eldest of whom was found dead in mysterious circumstances in Dubai 10 years ago.
The gangster has a sister named Haseena; so does our friend. Dawood the Terrible’s family used to reside in Nagpada in South Mumbai. Dawood the Good’s family is based at nearby Masjid Bandar.
To top it all, both are aged around 50 and both married only once.
While these coincidences make for a good tale, for Dawood the Good they have resulted in much trouble, particularly after the gangster became a wanted man and fled to Dubai.
“I had a passport in my name till 10 years ago,” says Dawood Ibrahim. “But when it expired I did not dare to apply again, knowing fully well that it would be an uphill task to convince the authorities that I am not the wanted man.”
Indeed, it took Dawood more than three months to get his voter identification card from the Election Commission.
Dawood the Good works at an arms repair workshop and has to visit the police headquarters at Crawford Market regularly. Every time he says his name to get a visitor’s pass, Dawood has to contend with raised eyebrows. “Stop fooling around and give your real name,” the constable on duty usually snaps.
“After 1985, when gangster Dawood was declared an absconder, whenever we made ISD calls to contact Dawoodbhai, the telephone booth operators used to be picked up by the police, suspecting that the calls were being made to the gangster,” recalls Dawood’s nephew Faizal.
