Calcutta, Jan. 10 :    Calcutta, Jan. 10:  After arresting Abdul Rauf on Monday evening from central Calcutta, the police picked up Salauddin, another sharp-shooter of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, from the city's outskirts on Wednesday morning. But the breakthrough was clouded, somewhat, by the Mumbai Police allegations that three other hitmen of the D-company might have crossed over into Bangladesh or Nepal after being holed up in Calcutta for at least a month. Sources said the three who had managed to give the police the slip were Hanif Khan, 30, Aslam Contractor, 26, and Dadi, 25. Speaking to The Telegraph from Mumbai, police commissioner M.N. Singh confirmed that many of Dawood's men have abandoned Mumbai and spread out in search of 'safer cities'. 'We have information that a few of them are taking shelter in Calcutta. Police have evidence of Dawood Ibrahim having some linkmen in Calcutta, who are in constant touch with him and his operators. They are providing protection, shelter and helping these hitmen to cross over to neighbouring countries,'' Singh added. Reacting to allegations that the city was turning into a haven for gangsters on the run, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Wednesday: 'We will not allow Calcutta to be used as a shelter by subversive elements, the mafia and the ISI... Our state is more peaceful than the others and that is why they try to take shelter here. But if the criminals thought that the police here were inactive, they have been proved wrong. These arrests are proof enough that the police are alert, and all such elements that will try to enter the state or the city will be caught.' Deputy commissioner of detective department Banibrata Basu said that Rauf, a prime accused in the Gulshan Kumar murder case, had put the police on the trail of 32-year-old Salauddin. 'We cross-checked the information with the Mumbai Police and then zeroed in on a Ghutiari Sharif house, in Budge Budge, early on Wednesday,'' Basu added. Salauddin is said to be a category-B sharp-shooter owing allegiance to Dawood and had been involved in 'five major operations'. He was based in Mumbai from 1983 to 1997 and moved to Calcutta recently with the Mumbai Police crime branch hot on his heels. Among other cases, Salauddin is wanted for his role in the kidnapping of Mahesh Chowdhury, a businessman in Mumbai, in 1996. Preliminary investigations have revealed that Rauf had received several calls from Hanif, Aslam and Dadi on his cellphone during his stay in Calcutta, when the three gangsters were, like Rauf, shifting houses at regular intervals to throw the Mumbai Police off their trail. They must have fled Calcutta for Bangladesh or Nepal, where Dawood had set up base through a henchman, Qayum, police sources said. While Chhota Shakeel is said to be overseeing the D-Company's operations in Mumbai, Qayum, a Dubai-based goon has, apparently, been given charge of 'the east and the Northeast'. Salauddin, who had been recruited by Rauf in Calcutta, was taking orders from Qayum. He has, apparently, been to Dubai five times to meet Qayum and Chhota Shakeel. Rauf, police said, had been to Calcutta four times while on his way to Bangkok and Bangladesh. Salauddin had arranged for his stay in the city. But it's not clear why Rauf had not put up with Salauddin in his three-month stay in Calcutta this time. Instead, he kept on shifting base before putting up in a one-roomed house in the Topsia area. Investigators are also baffled by the fact that Rauf took the help of Ghulam Ghouse, who he apparently only met while buying a cashcard for his cellphone in central Calcutta, to withdraw money being sent to him from Mumbai, when he could have easily done it through Salauddin. Mumbai crime branch officers said Aslam was one of the hitmen involved in the attack on rival mafia don Chhota Rajan in an apartment in Bangkok last year. Rauf also played a part in the strike, but was, apparently, a 'back-up'. Hanif, Aslam and Dadi are carrying several passports among them. According to sources, police have tracked down three of the 'fake passports' - OPD 612 5182, 612 4475 and 612 3398. 'They have travelled with these passports to Bangkok, Sharjah, Dubai, Lahore and Karachi,'' said an officer of the detective department.