The First Trillionaire

Untitled Part 41

Blood diamonds, also called conflict diamonds, have largely been blacklisted in the diamond markets across the world. They were mostly mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency. Musa had his eyes on thosediamonds which were acquired by his associates and smuggled into Dubai. Recently, investigators found out that Musa's Dubai-based company, Al Jamal Diamonds, is a front for this illegal trade in blood diamonds. "On each trip, diamonds worth around USD 5to 10 lakh are smuggled into Dubai and the African courier is paid USD 10,000 as his courier fee," as per the report. It gave a push to Jamal in his business interests concerningthe diamonds. All of Musa's illegal activities were whitewashed through Jamal, whose various institutes and their allied social services arms were doing good for the people in India.

For the visionary in Jamal, his interest in vast business areas and because of his efforts, Veraval became the biggest fishing port, and he enabled Surat to become the largest diamond processing center. Apart from such business interests, he had established an Indian Marine Institute at Veraval. Later on, he opened another branch in Hyderabad. After several years, the institution found its presence offshore, in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. The migrant now owned businesses in various parts of the world. Starting as an institute imparting technical education for fisheries only, the institute became a full-fledged institute with different courses and programs on marine research and management. His name came to be associated with philanthropists by the media which lapped up the good work done by him. And thus, his real face was never seen by the world.

Once he became truly prosperous, Jamal established schools in and around Gujarat along with the Jamal Educational Trust, which had undertaken the running of many schools in its fold. The schools were all imparting education in English, which benefitted various communities, eager for a "global education" in the face of a growing global industry near home. To the people from Gujarat, he became one of their own. He gave back to the community much more than he had taken from them.

Jamal started the Jamal Healthcare Society Ltd in the mid-1990s, which ran several hospitals in Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. He started many charitable institutes and healthcare systems for villagers, which provided free medical check-up and medicines. His work in the social sector earned him accolades in the country and abroad; he was awarded for his exemplary work in entrepreneurship and in the field of education by the government and other NGOs.

And behind this face, he hid his truly sinister visage. The inside story was something totally different. He instigated many riots between Hindus and Muslims in the state, but the government authorities could not identify him for his role in these caste-based skirmishes.

As Musa was quite close to Pakistani agencies like ISI, which was operating for terror financing in India, Jamal and his men, who had operations worldwide and ran many listed companies, ran most of his businesses.

Jamal also started dealing in arms and wine trafficking as Gujarat was an alcohol-free state. He started operating many of the shops, bars, restaurants and resorts in Daman and Diu, and soon, Gujaratis started to visit the place in droves for quenching their thirst for alcohol. He also became a financier to the political parties in states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Kerala. He also opened many business units in Dubai, started human trafficking agencies, primarily taking people to the Middle East. He also participated in the Kashmiri separatist movement in India and then financed Syria for their war operations. As his umbrella of influence grew, he developed close connections with ISIS and many other organizations worldwide without actually revealing himself.

His service to the poor and society, and recognition by the government spanning political parties in India afforded him the required immunity to carry out his criminal activities with audacity. He had so many fingers in so many pies, that most people owed him a debt or service.

It would be no hardship for him to keep Shail hidden and arrange for Musa to take her across the border.