Mirchi’s bro-in-law named by Lalit Modi is part of ED chargesheet

VijayV.SinghMumbai: Baba Asif, recently mentioned by former IPL chairman Lalit Modi in connection with a phone call allegedly made to Pakistan-based fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim to settle an issue, also figures in an Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheet linked to late drug trafficker Iqbal Mirchi and his associates.Mirchi’s nephew Nadeem in his statement has said that his uncle had plotted to kill him, but Asif protected him. Asif is Mirchi’s brother-in-law. Nadeem’s statement forms part of a chargesheet filed by the ED before a Mumbai court. Mirchi wanted to kill Nadeem as his daughter refused to marry Mirchi’s younger son.Intelligence sources said Baba Asif is known in political and bureaucratic circles in both Pakistan and India and has acted as an intermediary in informal communications between influential people in various countries. They claimed he also has close links with UK intelligence agencies. Baba Asif is the son of filmmaker K Asif, director of Mughal-e-Azam, and the stepbrother of Hina, Mirchi’s second wife. Sources said he also has several close friends in Bollywood.Mirchi died in London in 2013. Afterwards, Nadeem, through the official channel, had collected the transcript of the recording from the police in London he had submitted in 2011 while filing the case against Mirchi. He submitted it to the ED along with his detailed statement in 2021.Nadeem approached Baba Asif because of his influence and connections. Baba invited Nadeem to his penthouse in Park Lane, London, and later called Mirchi to the residence in an attempt to resolve the dispute.After discussing the issue with Nadeem, Baba asked him to leave through another door of the penthouse shortly before Mirchi arrived. Nadeem claimed he instead hid inside the residence, listened to the conversation between Baba and Mirchi, and secretly recorded it before leaving through another exit.Mirchi later learned that Nadeem was planning to file a case against him. Mirchi then instructed his son, Junaid, to lodge a police complaint in London accusing Nadeem of threatening him after the marriage proposal collapsed. Nadeem was subsequently arrested. During questioning, Nadeem provided police with information about Mirchi’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking and other criminal activities, but no action was taken.After his release, Nadeem claimed he learned that Mirchi was still seeking to have him killed. He approached the police with the recorded conversation involving Mirchi and Baba Asif and filed a complaint. According to his statement, police acted on the complaint and arrested Mirchi.Nadeem further alleged that Baba Asif again intervened to resolve the dispute between the two men. Subsequently, the Crown prosecution service concluded there was insufficient evidence to proceed and dropped the charges against Mirchi.Following Mirchi’s arrest, Indian agencies attempted to secure his extradition but were unsuccessful because documents related to cases against him were reportedly missing from Mumbai police records.In an interview to a channel, Lalit Modi claimed Baba Asif had summoned him to his penthouse residence early one morning to help resolve an issue in 2012. Lalit Modi alleged that in his presence, Baba placed a call to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and urged him to speak with him. Modi claimed he refused to do so, though he listened to the conversation because the call was on speaker phone.Modi described Baba as someone who was “seen everywhere” and “a man of the world.” He further claimed that during a meeting with his friend Shaukat Aziz, former PM of Pakistan, he found Baba present there as well, which according to Modi, reinforced his perception of Baba’s extensive connections.