Baba Siddique Murder Case: Investigating The Real Estate Nexus With Underworld Ties

Baba Siddique, who was a major player in the real estate market especially in the Bandra-Santa Cruz belt, which formed a part of his assembly constituency, had purchased an island near Dubai a few years ago at the instance of a close relative. According to a source, who was  close to Baba, both the relative and Baba invested over Rs 100 crs in the project. However, the project  never took off and both of them lost heavily in the process. Since Baba had invested money at the instance of the relative, relationship between them had soured. 

In another development, it is learnt that Baba had interfered in a mega housing redevelopment project in Khar (east), one of whose directors was directly involved with the Dawood Ibrahim gang. In fact, this director was so close to the don that he was one of the few builders of Mumbai who was invited to the wedding of the gangster's eldest daughter Mahrukh and Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandad's son Junaid in 2005. The wedding was held in Dubai. Incidentally, a late politician of Maharashtra is also believed to have invested in the Khar redevelopment project.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Chhota Shakeel's brother in law Arif Abubakar  Shaikh aka Arif Bhaijaan, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in May 2023 in a terror funding case, had given a wealth of information to the authorities about the nexus between Dawood and certain big builders of Mumbai. But, for some strange reason this information was not followed up by the police. This failure is one of the reasons why the nexus between D Company and the real estate industry was never broken. Attention is being now paid to this nexus in the context of the sensational murder Baba Siddique.