On 26 December 1955, in a village in Ratnagiri district of Maharastra, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar aka one of India’s Most Wanted Criminals, was born to a modest Konkani Muslim family with eight brothers and four sisters. His father, Ibrahim Kaskar, was a head constable in the Mumbai Police while his mother, Amina, was a homemaker. He was raised in Dongri, a poor, Muslim-dominated part of Central Bombay which would go on to became his stronghold as ‘The Don’.

He attended Ahmed Sailor High School, but dropped out when his father could not afford it any longer. He got into hooliganism and formed his own gang of Dongri boys who participated in small-time smuggling and violence. This continued until he came in contact with the gang of the then-reigning King of the Underworld, Haji Mastan, after the latter bashed up two of Dawood’s group. He was only 19 years old then.

From there, there was no turning back. In the 1970s, along with his brother, Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar, he formed what the media calls the ‘D-Company’ or Dawood Company. Today, the crime syndicate dabbles in international drug trafficking, counterfeiting and weapons smuggling across three continents and more than 25 countries.

Dawood, aka Sheikh Dawood Hassan, is married to Mehjabeen Shaikh alias Zubeena Zareen. Together, they have three children but very little is known about their marriage. In 2006, Dawood’s daughter, Mahrukh Ibrahim, married Junaid Miandad, son of Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad. In 2011, his daughter Mehreen married Ayub, a Pakistani-American. The same year, Dawood’s son Moin married Saniya, daughter of a London-based business tycoon and officially became a maulana in 2017. His third daughter Maria died of malaria in Pakistan in 2010.

Also Read: Mafia Don Dawood Ibrahim Depressed Over Sole Son Becoming Maulana

Several of his family members and D-Company associates like Chota Shakeel (Dawood’s key aide) and his relatives still live in Mumbai while Dawood is allegedly based in Pakistan. His sister, Haseena Parker, also known as the ‘Queen of Mumbai’, died of a cardiac arrest in 2014.

In 2011, Dawood stood at No 3 in Forbes’ World’s Top 10 Most Dreaded Criminals list.