Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar is perhaps the most notorious and widely feared criminal figure in modern South Asian history.
An Indian-born gangster, drug lord, and alleged terrorist, he is the founder and head of D-Company, one of the most powerful and far-reaching criminal syndicates in the world.
Wanted by India, the United States, and international law enforcement agencies including Interpol, Ibrahim has been a fugitive from justice for over three decades. His alleged masterminding of the devastating 1993 Bombay bombings, which killed hundreds of people, marked him as an international terrorist.
Despite massive efforts by multiple governments to capture him, he has remained at large, operating his global criminal empire from an undisclosed location believed by many intelligence agencies to be in Pakistan, a claim that Pakistan officially denies.
His life of crime, mystery, and extraordinary evasion of justice has made him one of the most written-about and dramatized criminal figures in popular culture.
Profile
| Full Name | Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar |
| Born | December 26, 1955 |
| Age | 70 years old |
| Birthplace | Khed, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Crime Lord, Fugitive |
| Religion | Islam |
| Parents | Ibrahim Kaskar (father, head constable, Mumbai Police); Amina Bi (mother) |
| Siblings | 11 siblings including Haseena Parkar (deceased), Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar (deceased), Anees Ibrahim |
| Spouse | Mehjabeen Shaikh (also known as Zubeena Zareen) |
| Organization | D-Company |
| Net Worth | $6–7 billion (unverified; from criminal empire) |
Early Life
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar was born on December 26, 1955, in Khed, a small town in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, India, into a Konkani Muslim family. His family moved to Mumbai when he was young, settling in the Dongri neighborhood of South Mumbai, an area known at the time for its dense population and significant criminal underworld activity. Ironically, his father, Ibrahim Kaskar, was a head constable in the Mumbai Police, making Dawood’s eventual criminal trajectory all the more extraordinary and tragic.
Growing up in Dongri, Dawood was exposed from an early age to the intersection of poverty, ambition, and organized crime that defined the neighborhood. He attended Ahmed Sailor High School in Mumbai but dropped out early as his involvement in criminal activities escalated during his teenage years. He began with small-time theft, robbery, and fraud before coming to the attention of local gang leaders, whose criminal enterprises offered a more lucrative path than any legal occupation available to a young man from his background.
Education
Dawood Ibrahim received a basic schooling education at Ahmed Sailor High School in Mumbai but did not complete his formal education, dropping out to pursue criminal activities. His lack of formal qualifications did not prevent him from building one of the most sophisticated and diversified criminal empires in the world, an organization that would come to span multiple continents and generate billions of dollars annually through drug trafficking, arms dealing, extortion, gambling, and money laundering.
Career
Dawood Ibrahim’s criminal career began in the late 1970s when he joined the criminal syndicate of Haji Mastan, a powerful Mumbai smuggler and underworld figure who mentored and protected the young Dawood. Under Mastan’s tutelage, Dawood developed his leadership instincts and criminal organizational skills. He rapidly built his own network of associates and by the early 1980s had established his own criminal syndicate, which came to be known as D-Company, a reference to his initial.
D-Company’s operations expanded quickly beyond Mumbai, initially focused on gold and goods smuggling during a period when India’s strict import controls created enormous profit margins for contraband traders. As his wealth grew, so did his ambitions. He extended his empire into drug trafficking (heroin and other narcotics from Afghanistan through Pakistan and into global markets), illegal arms trading, gambling, extortion, land grabbing, and money laundering through legitimate business fronts in real estate, Bollywood film financing, and other industries.
By the mid-1980s, Dawood Ibrahim was the undisputed ruler of Mumbai’s criminal underworld, with networks extending into the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. A violent gang war with rival Chhota Rajan in the 1990s caused enormous bloodshed in Mumbai and further cemented Dawood’s fearsome reputation. In 1986, following the issuance of a Mumbai Police wanted notice in connection with the murder of Samad Khan, Dawood fled India for Dubai, where he operated his empire with relative impunity for several years.
The watershed moment in Dawood Ibrahim’s criminal career, and the act that transformed him from a domestic crime lord into an internationally designated terrorist, came on March 12, 1993. A series of 13 coordinated bomb explosions rocked Mumbai, killing 257 people, injuring over 700, and causing massive property damage. Indian intelligence agencies accused Dawood Ibrahim of planning and financing the attacks, allegedly in retaliation for the demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque and the subsequent Hindu-Muslim riots of December 1992. The 1993 bombings remain one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Indian history and made Dawood a globally wanted criminal.
Since 1993, Dawood Ibrahim has been designated a global terrorist by the United States Treasury Department, added to Interpol’s red notice list, and made the subject of demands by the Indian government for his extradition from Pakistan, where Indian and many international intelligence agencies believe him to be residing in Karachi. Pakistan has consistently denied his presence on its soil. In 2010, Forbes magazine listed Dawood as the third most wanted person in the world. D-Company is believed to have operational tentacles across 16 countries, with property investments and financial assets spread across the globe. His estimated net worth ranges from $6–7 billion, making him one of the wealthiest criminals in the world.
In recent years, there have been numerous unverified reports about his health and whereabouts, including claims of illness, poisoning, and hospitalization in Karachi. None of these reports have been officially confirmed, and Dawood Ibrahim’s exact location remains one of the most closely guarded secrets in international organized crime and intelligence circles. As of 2026, he remains at large and on the international wanted list.
Social Media
Given the nature of his status as an international fugitive and globally designated terrorist, Dawood Ibrahim has no confirmed official social media presence. His name continues to generate enormous search interest online, and his story has inspired numerous Bollywood films, Netflix series, books, and documentary investigations.
Personal Life
Dawood Ibrahim is married to Mehjabeen Shaikh, also known as Zubeena Zareen. He has several children with his wife. His sister, the late Haseena Parkar (who died in 2014), was herself a prominent and feared figure in Mumbai’s underworld and was the subject of the 2017 Bollywood film Haseena Parkar. His brother Anees Ibrahim is also believed to be involved in D-Company operations. His family has been subject to Indian law enforcement scrutiny for decades, with assets seized and relatives interrogated in connection with D-Company activities.
Net Worth
Dawood Ibrahim’s estimated net worth is between $6 billion and $7 billion, though these figures are inherently unverifiable due to the secretive and criminal nature of his wealth. His empire is believed to generate revenue through drug trafficking (reportedly one of the largest narcotics distribution networks in South Asia), arms dealing, extortion, gambling operations, real estate investments across multiple countries, and infiltration of legitimate industries including the entertainment sector. Property investments attributed to D-Company have been identified across 16 countries.
FAQs
Who is Dawood Ibrahim?
He is an Indian-born crime lord, drug lord, and alleged terrorist, founder of the D-Company criminal syndicate, and the alleged mastermind of the 1993 Bombay bombings.
Where is Dawood Ibrahim now?
His exact whereabouts are unknown. Indian and many international intelligence agencies believe him to be living in Karachi, Pakistan, a claim Pakistan denies.
Why is Dawood Ibrahim wanted?
He is wanted primarily for the 1993 Bombay bombings, organized crime, drug trafficking, arms dealing, extortion, and multiple other offences.
What is D-Company?
D-Company is the criminal syndicate founded and led by Dawood Ibrahim, operating across multiple countries and involved in drug trafficking, arms dealing, extortion, gambling, and money laundering.
Conclusion
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar’s story is one of the most extraordinary and troubling in the history of organized crime. From the streets of Mumbai’s Dongri neighborhood to the highest levels of international criminal power, his journey represents a catastrophic failure of law enforcement, international cooperation, and geopolitical will to bring one of the world’s most dangerous fugitives to justice. Decades after the 1993 Bombay bombings, he remains the most wanted man in India and one of the most wanted on the global stage, a living embodiment of the frightening persistence and adaptability of transnational organized crime in the modern world.