Chennai immigration knew little about Ismail's D Company connections

CHENNAI: When immigration authorities detained Ismail on Sunday morning at Chennai airport based on a Letter of Call (LoC), little did they know how big a fish they had netted.
The immigration authorities who swiped the photo page of Ismail's passport and cross checked it with their data bank of blacklisted persons, they found that all parameters given in the LoC matched with the passport details of Ismail.But much more details about the pointsman of Rashid Malbari, the sharp shooter of the Chota Shakeel gang, were still being withheld by the Karnataka police who were hunting for Ismail.
According to sources in the immigration, there were "directions from the top" not to reveal anything about Ismail's arrest to the media.
"We knew that he had escaped when the Intelligence Bureau officials rounded up Rashid Malbari and three others near Udupi. So the LoC was issued against Ismail as an absconding accused in that case. But later we came to know that Ismail was much bigger than just that," an official said.
The IB and Karnataka police were keen to bust a module set up by Chota Shakeel to eliminate Varun Gandhi and Pramod Mutalik. Rashid Malbari, a sharp shooter, was the key element in that module. Sources said Ismail was the person appointed to provide logistical support for this module. IB feels it can trace the network better using Ismail as he has been the key strategist in the given operation.
According to IB sources, Ismail who hails from southern Karnataka was only known as a shadow of Rashid Malbari, a lieutenant of Chotta Shakeel, but played a very significant role in the supari' assignments of the D Company.
"He was in Dubai and has been a key player in the D Company assignments. He has been providing logistical support for the latest assignment against Varun Gandhi and Mutalik. When Malbari was arrested in Udupi, they were planning to kidnap a rich businessman from there. They planned to use this ransom to carry out the elimination plan. IB rounded up Malbari and three others near Udupi in a car. Ismail was not with them at that time," another official said.
Ismail presumed that his low profile activities would not attract much attention in Tamil Nadu. He was on his way to Saudi Arabia when he was picked up at Chennai airport. He had come to Chennai from Kumbakonam and was supposed to leave by a morning flight on Sunday.