In the last days of Ramzan, Anis Ibrahim Kaskar, 42, travelled to Saudi Arabia. His purpose was nothing more than to visit the holy city of Mecca to perform the ummrah pilgrimage. He returned to Dubai planning to spend the cherished festival of Id-ul-Fitr with his family in his sprawling 12th floor apartment in the city's par-Deira area. Instead, on December 3, Dubai Police knocked on Anis' door, literally. The gangster spent the following days-including December 6, the day Id fell-in prison.

WANTED MAN: From backstreet Mumbai to Africa, Anis has travelled a long way

Shortly afterwards, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities informed the Indian Government of Anis' arrest. It was a big moment. Anis is one of India's most wanted men, Dawood Ibrahim's younger brother and figures in the list of 20 that Delhi placed before Islamabad just after the terrorist strike on Parliament on December 13, 2001.

The "dirty 20", India said, were Indian criminals that Pakistan was harbouring. General Pervez Musharraf scoffed at the suggestion. Yet, when Anis was arrested, not one but two Pakistani passports were found on him. The first, number G 866537, was issued in Rawalpindi. The second, number unknown, was issued in Islamabad and listed Anis' alternative address as C/o Post Box 3694, Dubai. The documents spoke for themselves and, certainly, constituted a diplomatic embarrassment for Pakistan.

It was not the first time Anis had been arrested in the Gulf region. On January 8, 1996, he was arrested in Bahrain's Hotel Moon Plaza for cohabiting with prostitutes and possessing narcotics. He was deported to Dubai and escaped penalty by claiming the drugs were for personal use and not for sale.

Two years later, Irfan Goga disappeared. He was Anis' comrade and fellow gangster in Mumbai. The friendship travelled badly and, soon after the two moved to Dubai, became a bitter rivalry. Shaila, Goga's wife, complained to the Dubai Police that her husband had simply vanished and she feared he had been killed by Anis. On November 14, 1998, Anis was arrested on the basis of Shaila's complaint. Two days later, he was freed for lack of evidence. Now that old ghost is back to haunt him.

The Goga case reopened recently when the murdered mafioso's remains were found in a villa in Dubai's Al Wasi area. The police say it found corroborative links to suggest Anis was involved in the silencing of "a fellow Indian businessman". That explains the arrest of December 3.

It may not, however, be the entire explanation. For about a year now, the UAE administration has been monitoring Anis due to a combination of information flows from India and pressure from the United States, following the general crackdown on crime-terror syndicates after 9/11.

Anis is chief executive, as it were, of Dawood Associates, India's very own crime MNC. Shuttling between Pakistan-Dawood himself is based in Karachi-and Dubai, Anis' traditional lines of business are narcotics and counterfeit currency. As per intelligence sources, he has circulated fake notes "worth" Rs 10 crore in India. In Bangkok in 2000, his accomplice Aftab Batki was arrested jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Thai police for printing counterfeit US dollars.

In recent years, Anis has branched out into smuggling arms to African maritime states such as Somalia and Kenya. The front for this operation is his cargo firm, of which one M. Ali is a partner and which has ships frequenting Karachi, Dubai and ports in the horn of Africa. After an Al-Qaida squad attacked Israeli tourists in the Kenyan city of Mombasa in November, Anis came under increased US surveillance.

Nowhere is the notoriety and infamy of the Ibrahim family (see chart) more closely followed than in Mumbai. Anis is wanted here for the 1993 bomb blasts, for the murders of music tycoon Gulshan Kumar and racing bookmaker Izak Borgaonkar, for counterfeit currency and extortion rackets, for supplying AK-47 rifles to D Company well-wishers and, among others, filmstar Sanjay Dutt.

For years, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been providing details to the UAE authorities of how Dawood, his brothers and their henchmen, from Eijah Mohammed Sharif to Tiger Memon to Mohammed Dosa, have misused their stay in the Emirates. The D Company's top rung moved from Dubai to Pakistan after the 1993 Bombay blasts. Even so, they visit Dubai every six months to get their UAE visa extended and own extensive properties in Dubai and Sharjah.

Over time, the CBI had also sent evidence of Anis' investments in a number of US-based companies-Yusuf Trading Company, Raveena Yusuf Traders, Gulf Coast Real Estate, Arfan General Trading, Matco Dubai, Al Aswana and King of Cars Trading-as well as in London-based Robinson Company. The implication was that these companies were fronts for money laundering, akin or even affiliated to Al-Qaida's sleeper cells in the US.

For the moment, the UAE authorities are cautious about the international ramifications of the Anis case. A media release from Lt-Colonel Al Khalil Ibrahim, director, cid, Dubai Police, makes it explicit that Anis has been arrested for "suspected criminal activities carried out in Dubai" and not for charges related to "political or terrorist matters".

While Anis' immediate deportation to India has been ruled out, Home Ministry sources here are hopeful of his ultimate "homecoming". They cite the recent extradition from Dubai of Aftab Ansari, accused of masterminding the attack on the American Center in Kolkata earlier this year.

"Getting Anis extradited will be tougher if not impossible," admits a CBI officer. Apart from having to establish that Anis is an Indian citizen, the CBI has to counter Dawood's influence in Dubai. The last thing he would want is to have his brother brought to justice.

Nevertheless, the Ansari precedent and the invisible hand of the US-last felt in the arrest of Dawood ally Abu Salem in Portugal-has India optimistic. Says K.C. Singh, Indian ambassador to the UAE: "The cooperation extended by the UAE authorities in the recent past has been exemplary. We have very little doubt that the same practice will be followed in the case of Anis Ibrahim."

A billion Indians hope he's right.