Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
One of those fine Sunday evenings that I used to spend in the company of my friends in South Bombay’s Bhendi Bazaar area came to mind when a friend of mine from the crime reporting field made a mention of Ejaz Pathan. It was well over a decade of my dropping in at the location on my weekly offs from newspaper reporting.
A long span of time after the charge sheet was filed in the March 12, 1993, serial blasts case, local don Ejaz Pathan continued to elude the police dragnet and was listed with the other absconding accused who was wanted for the crime. It was during that span that I came in touch with locals who used to assemble in Ejaz Pathan’s office which was located a stone’s throw from the Dongri fire station. We used to spend long evenings discussing conspiracy theories, regaling ourselves with Urdu poetry and shayaris, besides making light of the country’s criminal justice system and how it failed in its impact.
Don Ejaz Pathan was arrested after being deported from Dubai on February 19, 2003. The don, however, had become a pale shadow of his imposing self owing to ailing from diabetes and high blood pressure besides suffering from partial paralysis. I got a brief glimpse when the Don shared his suffering experiences with another convict in the case by the name Aziz. It was later when Aziz shared with me details of how the don’s last days on wheelchair prior to his death were spent recalling Pathan’s halcyon days, that I learned about their younger years playing gully cricket. Aziz, whose role in the conspiracy was very peripheral, also disclosed to me that Ejaz was in great pain towards the end.
Also read: Sunday Snippets: Reporting from the don’s den
Having met the don when he had come to have a shave in the locality, I too understood that he was heading towards the fag end of his life. Not much conversation could happen though we did exchange greetings and he cited that his son was going to opt for the commerce stream in his college years. Ages on, I was seated with another of the famous dons, Hanif Bearing with a host of others when I was formally introduced to Ejaz Pathan’s college-going son. He informed me that he was in the second year of his bachelor’s in commerce (B.Com).
I also had an animated chat with Aziz about prospects of penning a biography on Ejaz’s life and times. Aziz told me that in his earlier years, Ejaz was of a very aggressive bearing that put him on the feared list of dons. However, he lacked the strategic way in which Dawood and his coterie planned and plotted to achieve their ends. In the serial blasts case, the don had been charged with handling the landing of explosives and arms besides arranging for accused persons to receive arms training in Pakistan.
Having watched the waxing and waning of a don on his home turf, I recalled the times when we all used to share food from the same plate centrally placed in Ejaz’s office. Those were also the days when there used to be no end of snacks, tea and pot doing the rounds in our circle.
