Who Was Sapna Didi? The Woman Who Dared To Bring Down Dawood Ibrahim
Sapna Didi, born Ashraf, planned to kill Dawood Ibrahim during India-Pakistan cricket match in Sharjah in the early 1990s.
Dawood Ibrahim is one of the most infamous criminals in India’s history who is known for his role in the 1993 Bombay bombings. In 2003, he was declared a global terrorist with a $25 million bounty on his head. Despite his power, there was one woman who dared to challenge him – Sapna Didi. Her story, although largely forgotten today, is told in Mafia Queens of Mumbai by journalist Hussain Zaidi. In this book, Zaidi gives readers a glimpse of Sapna Didi, a woman whose life mission became to take down the feared gangster. He described her as a “femme fatale" and an “avenging angel" with “strikingly attractive" appearance.
Sapna Didi, born Ashraf, was raised in a conservative Muslim family in Mumbai. She was unaware of her husband Mehmood Khan’s ties to the criminal world until tragedy struck. Mehmood was killed at the Mumbai airport and it was later revealed that Dawood had ordered his murder because Mehmood had refused to follow his instructions. This event changed Ashraf’s life forever and filled her with revenge.
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Determined to bring Dawood down, Ashraf adopted the name Sapna Didi and set out to take revenge on Dawood for the death of her husband. She sought help from Hussain Ustara, a rival gangster, to learn how to use weapons. Over time, she helped disrupt Dawood’s business by intercepting weapons shipments and taking down illegal operations in Mumbai.
“She knew the Mumbai underworld like the back of her hand and was creating unprecedented fear in the minds of Dawood’s many henchmen. She had begun to play a big role in busting several gambling dens and dance bars in the city as well," Zaidi wrote in the book.
One of Sapna’s most daring plans was to kill Dawood during an India-Pakistan cricket match in Sharjah in the early 1990s. Dawood was known to watch these matches from the VIP section and Sapna’s plan was to have her men attack him during the game. They would use umbrellas and broken bottles as makeshift weapons. Some would take on Dawood’s men while others would focus on him.
However, Sapna was tracked down before she could carry out her plan. In 1994, Dawood’s men found her in her Mumbai home and brutally killed her, stabbing her 22 times. No one came to her aid, too afraid of Dawood’s revenge. Sapna died before reaching the hospital.
Today, Sapna Didi’s story remains largely unknown and no photographs of her exist.
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