Iqbal Mirchi, who vehemently denied any link with Bombay underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, had moved to the UK in 1995 as a dependant of his wife Hina Iqbal Memon, who had moved to the country in 1994 and owned businesses in Britain at the time. Twice-married Mirchi’s one wife and children live in Dubai.
Mirchi, whose passport was withdrawn by India after he managed to evade extradition from the UK in 1995, was an Indian citizen as he had not been issued a passport by the UK. He only had discretionary leave to remain in Britain.
Mirchi, who divided time between London and Dubai, had been arrested in the UK in April 1995 on the charges of trafficking drugs (mandrax), terrorism charges in connection with the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts and charges linked to murder and conspiracy to murder Amar Suvarna, former manager of his rice mill.
However, he was cleared of all charges by the Bow Street magistrates’ court in London. The Indian government lost its bid to extradite him, did not appeal against the judgment and reimbursed Mirchi, who had hired top extradition expert Clive Nicholls, for his legal costs.
The Met police had cleared him of all criminal activity in 1999 after a long investigation.
India again got a chance to get Mirchi extradited when he was arrested in October 2011 for allegedly threatening to kill his nephew Nadeem Kader after the younger man apparently withdrew proposal of marriage between his daughter and Mirchi’s son.
In court, the tall strapping Mirchi, who wore a salwar kameez, only responded to questions in Hindi/Urdu and had a translator to help him understand the proceedings.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service in November 2011 withdrew the case against Mirchi over lack of evidence just couple of weeks before the trial was due to start.
At the time, Mirchi had denied all the claims and alleged that Kader was trying to extort money by blackmail by threatening him with breaking off the marriage promise between their children if he did not pay him an unspecified sum of money.
Mirchi, after the case was dropped, had told this newspaper in a written interview through his lawyer that he had offered to return to India and face the due process of law.
He claimed that he had been denied judicial protection by India.