Ali Budesh

2022-04-30T06:29:12Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}
'''Ali Baba Budesh''' (born 1957-14th April 2022)<ref name="Khambe">[http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/oct/291009-Sachin-Khambe-Bahrain-gangster-Ali-Budesh.htm Rise of a new don in Mumbai?] - 29 October 2009, Mid Day</ref> was a notorious Indian extortionist and underworld mobster, based in [[Bahrain]]. He was mostly active in 1990s. Fearing backlash from the [[Mumbai police]], Budesh fled to Bahrain in the late eighties, where he opened up his new base of operations in the capital city of [[Manama]].He died in coma as he was suffering from sugar related illness.<ref name="Budesh1"/>

==Early life==
Most of the details of Budesh's early life and background are unclear. Born to an Indian mother and Arab father, he made his entrance into the Mumbai underworld as a petty pickpocket and a street ruffian. The police in [[Vikhroli]], a north-eastern suburb of the city, had registered a case of assault against him.<ref name="Budesh1">[http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/jun/26budesh.htm New ganglord rises in Bombay], 1998</ref> However, prior to his involvement in petty crime, Budesh is known to have studied at a [[boarding school]] near [[Pune]].<ref name="Joyson"/>

==Death==
Ali Budesh died on 14 April 2022. His death news was widely spread after Amber Sharma investigative filmmaker & founder of Mowgli Productions broke the news.

==Cause==

Ali Budesh was admitted to Army Hospital on 12th March 2022 he was suffering from high sugar levels and went into coma . On 14 April 2022, he was pronounced dead by Doctors. Ali Budesh was getting treatment at Bahrain Defence Force Hospital.

==Contact with Dawood Ibrahim==
While living in the slums near the Pankheshah Baba shrine at Ghatkopar (W), Budesh came into contact with some of [[Dawood Ibrahim]]'s gang members who were on the run from the police, and sought shelter in the labyrinthine slums of the Vikhroli Parksite area. Budeshi was rewarded for his initial assistance of these men, when he was sent to [[Dubai]] and met Dawood Ibrahim, the infamous head of the [[D-Company]] and India's most wanted fugitive.<ref name="Budesh1"/>

==Boss of his own gang==
Budesh later split from the D-Company, together with other key aides of Dawood Ibrahim such as the Pakistani smuggler Shoaib Khan, Irfan Goga, and Ijaz Pathan, and formed his own separate gang with its headquarters in Bahrain.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1607/16070420.htm |title=Mumbai's mafia wars |access-date=7 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070403162348/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1607/16070420.htm |archive-date=3 April 2007 |url-status=usurped |df=dmy-all }}</ref> He allied himself with some of Dawood Ibrahim's enemies and went on to lead them against him. These a feared gangster from Virar-Virar, Subhash Singh Thakur, who is currently lodged in [[New Delhi]]'s [[Tihar Prisons|Tihar Central Prison]]. Another former Ibrahim aide, Dilawar Khan, became Budesh's right-hand man. This alliance caused some major upsets to Ibrahim's declining empire.<ref name="Budesh1"/>

==Informant==
He also began informing on members of the D-Company to law enforcement. The detention of Dawood Ibrahim's brother, [[Anees Ibrahim]] at the [[Bahrain International Airport]] at [[Muharraq]] in 1996 is believed to have been due to a tip-off from Budesh. Dawood spent over Rs 5 lakh for his brother's release. Similarly, the month-long incarceration of [[Abu Salem]], another key underworld figure at the [[UAE]]'s Al-Rafa detention centre was attributed to Budesh. Budesh also began informing on other Indian NRI gangsters such as [[Chhota Shakeel]], Noora Ibrahim, etc., forcing them to flee the UAE for [[Pakistan]], where they are believed to have made their base of operations in [[Karachi]].<ref name="Budesh1"/>

==Involvement in the extortion rackets==
In spite of the falling out with his former mentor, Budesh's policy in his extortion rackets closely follow Dawood Ibrahim's modus operandi. His targets include builders, diamond merchants and figures within the [[Bollywood]] film industry. His demands from builders include an annual fee or a few flats in their projects. From diamond merchants, he seeks deposits in numbered accounts in Swiss banks. However, the biggest contributors to his extortion racket have always been the Bollywood film figures.<ref name="Budesh1"/>

Those who usually refuse to pay the extortion money or ''hafta'' as it is called in the Mumbai underworld jargon, are dealt with in a severe manner. For instance, when Natwarlal Desai, a local Mumbai based builder refused to pay the hafta being demanded by Budesh's gang, he was later shot dead on 18 August 1997 at Nariman Point by the Budesh gang members. Those businessmen who were reluctant to pay the hafta to Budesh's enforcers, paid up with alacrity after the Desai killing. After this incident, no other killing by the Budesh gang was reported for a long time.<ref name="Budesh1"/>

On April, 1998, Keith Rodrigues, the chief steward at the Copper Chimney restaurant at Saki Naka was shot dead by Ali Budesh's gunmen. The murder was done as a warning to the restaurant's owner, Satish Bansal, who had been dodging Budesh's demand for Rs 5 lakh for months.<ref name="Budesh1"/>

==Extorting Bollywood==
Some leading Bollywood film producers also became victims of Budesh's extortion tactics. He made threatening calls to [[Rakesh Roshan]], [[Mukesh Bhatt]] and [[Boney Kapoor]], and demanded up to ''2 khokha'' (Rs. 2 crore) from each of them.<ref name="Budesh1"/> The Tips Cassette Company owner, Ramesh Taurani, was also being extorted for the same amount.<ref>[http://www.expressindia.com/news/ie/daily/19980527/14750734.html Bollywood under threat again]</ref>

On 21 January 2000, [[Rakesh Roshan]] was shot at by two Budesh gang members near his office on Tilak Road at Santacruz West.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1917/19170340.htm |title=The stars and the dons |access-date=7 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100728074038/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1917/19170340.htm |archive-date=28 July 2010 |url-status=usurped |df=dmy-all }}</ref> The assailants fired two bullets at him, one of which hit him on the left arm while the other grazed his chest. As the director fell to the ground, the assailants fled the scene.<ref>[http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jan/21roshan.htm Rakesh Roshan shot at]</ref> The assailants were later identified as Sunil Vithal Gaikwad and Sachin Kamble. The attack on Roshan was not undertaken with the intent to kill, but to signal that the [[Shiv Sena]] could no longer protect its clients. Roshan had stonewalled demands from Budesh for a percentage of the profits from the overseas sale of the Hindi blockbuster, [[Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1711/17110430.htm |title=Of politics and profit |access-date=7 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007055526/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1711/17110430.htm |archive-date=7 October 2008 |url-status=usurped |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

==Extorting politicians==
In 2018, several high-ranking Indian politicians claimed to have received extortion calls from Budesh.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/bjp-ex-mla-gets-extortion-call-from-former-dawood-aide-ali-budesh/articleshow/64406504.cms|title=Dawood: BJP ex-MLA gets extortion call from former Dawood aide Ali Budesh | Ahmedabad News - Times of India|website=[[The Times of India]]}}</ref>

==Clashes with the law==
Budesh claimed responsibility for the hand-grenade attack near a hotel in Dahisar, a western suburb of Bombay on June, 1998. In the incident, some gangsters, when challenged, hurled the grenade at the police. In the blast and the subsequent police firing, two policemen and three gangsters were killed and several others were injured. However, Budesh's claim was dismissed by the Mumbai police.<ref>[http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/jun/25bombay.htm CID probe ordered into grenade attack on policemen]</ref> The following year, Tirupati Kotian and Austin Carvalho, two members of the Ali Budesh gang were shot dead in an [[Encounter killings|encounter]] with the Mumbai police at Kandivli.<ref>[http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990719/ige19047.html 2 Budesh gangsters killed in encounter]</ref>

== Open war with Dawood Ibrahim ==
Budesh had a great falling out with Dawood over a property deal in Mumbai in 1997. Budesh, along with [[Uttar Pradesh]] don Subhash Singh Thakur, had hoped to extort money out of this deal from Natwar Lal Desai, a well known builder.<ref name="Joyson"/>

However, Desai who had links with the D-Company, refused to pay them any cash and asked Dawood to intervene. This resulted in a verbal spat between the two dons. Dawood threatened Budesh on phone asking the latter to stay away from Desai, to which the latter did not respond well.<ref name="Joyson"/>

According to the excerpts from a tape sent by Budesh to [[India Today]] in March 2010, he stated:

{{Cquote|I told him (Dawood) that he had no right to abuse me. I told him that so far he had known me as Ali Bhai, but the day I become Ali Budesh, you will cry!}}<ref name="Joyson"/>

In retaliation, Budesh and Thakur had Desai killed on 18 August 1997.<ref name="Joyson"/>

In March 2010 Ali Badesh declared an open war against his former mentor, Dawood Ibrahim and his D-company, vowing to kill the former. Budesh has teamed up with underworld don Babloo Srivastava and launched Operation D against Dawood and his gang.<ref name="Joyson">[http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/90350/114/Bahrain+don+challenges+Dawood.html Bahrain don Budesh challenges Dawood] - 29 March 2010, India Today</ref>

The duo are now being seen as the most deadly threat that the D-company has ever faced, bigger than even Dawood's arch-rival, [[Chhota Rajan]].<ref name="Joyson"/>

They are in fact accused by the [[Nepal]]ese and [[India]]n authorities of being behind the murders of Dawood's three main agents in Nepal, i.e., Majid Manihar, Parvez Tanda and [[Jamim Shah]], Nepalese media entrepreneur who was reputed to be the architect of Dawood's [[counterfeit currency]] racket in India.<ref name="Joyson"/>

Dawood is believed to have entrusted his chief lieutenant, [[Chhota Shakeel]] to deal with Budesh.<ref name="Joyson"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Budesh, Ali}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1957 births]]
[[Category:Indian gangsters]]
[[Category:Indian crime bosses]]
[[Category:Bahraini gangsters]]
[[Category:Indian smugglers]]
[[Category:Bahraini smugglers]]
[[Category:Indian Muslims]]
[[Category:Bahraini Muslims]]
[[Category:Indian people of Bahraini descent]]
[[Category:Bahraini people of Indian descent]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to Bahrain]]
[[Category:Criminals from Mumbai]]

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Ali Budesh