Mumbai police officials are waiting for J M Joshi and Rasiklal Dhariwal, the proprietors of Goa and Manikchand gutkha respectively, to return to the country so that they can be questioned about their links with Pakistan-based gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anis Ibrahim Kaskar.

The two, who are in Dubai right now, allegedly helped Anis set up a gutkha manufacturing company in Karachi. Dawood is said to be generating a huge income from the company.

The police were expecting Dhariwal to return on Monday morning to attend his granddaughter's wedding in Pune, but he didn't come.

It is a high profile case, so the police are proceeding cautiously. "Investigation is on. We will take action against whoever is connected with the case," Police Commissioner A N Roy said on Wednesday.

The police want to interrogate Dhariwal and Joshi in connection with an extortion case in which one Jamruddin alias Jumbo (36) and Rajubhai Panchariya alias Rajesh (33) had threatened some Mumbai-based businessmen to send five gutkha packaging machines to Pakistan.

The police arrested Jamruddin and Panchariya on October 10, 2004.

The two had sent the machines to Dubai. From there Anis's associate Farukh Mansuri sent them to Karachi.

All this while Jamruddin and Panchariya were in touch with Anis through mobile phones.

The police have applied the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act in the case.

The police have already questioned Dawood's father-in-law Salim Kashmiri.

Dhariwal and Joshi are well known businessmen. The two had started a gutkha company, but developed some differences in 1997. So they approached Dawood to settle their 40 crore dispute.

After settling the dispute Dawood convinced them to help him set up a gutkha company.