ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

The Rediff Special

Tycoon accused of being a thief

Jake Khan in Bombay

Shaukat Sarkar was comfortably off with a Rs 5 billion empire that included several hotels, building complexes and a fleet of LPG tankers. And he was the winner of a "national citizen award" to boot. And now he's been nicked for lifting cars.

Sarkar was arrested on September 15 by the crime branch unit-VII on the charges of receiving stolen property. And now the income tax department and the crime branch are busy working out the extent and worth of Sarkar's properties and trying to ascertain how much illegal methods may have enhanced it.

"We've managed to establish that he must be worth at least Rs 2 billion. By the time we finish, that figure could well go up to Rs 5 billion or even beyond," said assistant commissioner of police, D-II, Dashrath Avhad.

Sarkar had risen fast from humble beginnings. Till the late seventies he lived in an 8 feet by 10 feet tenement at Sankli Street in Byculla, in central Bombay. He started a small-scale rubber factory by Narayan Nagar at Ghatkopar in the north-east suburbs of the city.

He had a setback in the late eighties that hit him badly. Sarkar then bought an oil tanker with what he had left and then began the climb up.

The police allege he may have been in oil pilferage and land grabbing rackets since 1975 and that could be why he was so successful. Today, Sarkar's Hindustan Bulk Carriers runs over 140 oil tankers.

Sarkar also bought two hotels, Metro Palace at Hill Road Bandra and Metro International at Saki Naka, both in the western suburbs, and put money into construction. According to officers of the crime branch, he is a partner in at least 20 building complexes in the western suburbs. Sarkar is also a director of the Sarkar Builders and Metro Development Corporation.

Sarkar owns a considerable amount of property and has bought several hundred acres of land in and around Bombay.

"We've kept other cases on hold and are only concentrating on Sarkar," said Vilas Tupe, senior police officer of the crime branch unit VII.

"We've come across affluent students and middle-class housewives taking to crimes for money, not somebody like Shaukat Sarkar with so much wealth," said an officer.

Sarkar got into car theft very recently. In his statement to the police, Sarkar said he did not steal cars for his own use but for that of his three bodyguards -- Kazim, Kailash and Naseem. All three are in custody though the police don't believe Sarkar's claim.

"Sarkar actually hired services of a professional car thief, Ishan Kazi, and his gang and they stole cars for him," said Tupe. Kazi, currently in police custody, is accused of stealing over 100 cars.

Sarkar is apparently well-connected. "We've heard of his contacts, but so far he has not disclosed any big name," said investigating officer, police inspector Prashant Deshpande.

It was a spot of good luck for the cops and bad timing for Sarkar that led to his downfall.

Two weeks before his arrest, the police were tipped off that Sarkar is involved in a car-lifting racket. The informer gave them a registration number and told them two of Sarkar's cars bore that number.

When the police went to his Bandra hotel, they found a white Tata Estate bearing that number, DL-5C-A-6236, parked in the compound. While they were questioning Sarkar's bodyguards, in rolled Sarkar himself in a grey Tata Sierra -- with the same number on its number plate.

The police found six of his cars matched with ones stolen from Cuffe Parade, Tilak Nagar, Azad Maidan, M R A Marg and Vile Parle police station areas. The police learnt that Sarkar used to gift stolen cars to his friends. The seized Estate was allegedly a gift to a Versova-based mistress and others were reportedly given to some top politicians from Bihar. Tupe denies that they have information of this.

Family and friends stick by Sarkar, claiming he's been framed.

"My husband is a philanthropist. He can do no such thing," says Sarkar's wife Mehfuza. And Nawaz Grover, a family friend, implied that he wasn't so money minded since he even contributed to Hindus temples, despite being a Muslim. Sarkar was as generous with his money at Muslim festivals, spending hundreds of thousands and feeling thousands of poor people.

When this reporter visited Netaji Phalkar Road at Narayana Nagar at Ghatkopar, he found that people there idolised the man they called 'Sarkar Seth' and 'Mahatma Sarkar.'

The police are at loss to explain why such a man, with so much to lose, had got into stealing cars or buying them. Deputy commissioner of police, detection, Param Bir Singh suggests it could be arrogance, the feeling that he cannot be touched, that made Sarkar feel he could get away with anything.

The Rediff Specials

Tell us what you think of this feature