Mumbai: The Thane crime branch will seek custody of Iqbal Kaskar, brother of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, in the third extortion case registered against him soon. Kaskar is currently lodged in the Thane prison after Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) charges were pressed against him by the Thane police in an extortion case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the Thane police and has collected the documents of the first case, based on which it is conducting a probe on money-laundering involving Kaskar. The ED requires a prior criminal case to conduct an investigation under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Kaskar and his aides. Investigators said that the case pertains to 38 acres of land parcel in Gorai for which complainant had paid Rs 2 crore to Tony Lewis, owner of the land. However, soon after first instalment was made in 2015, the complainant started receiving threat calls from Dawood’s brother Anees Ibrahim and other D-gang members, asking him to back off from the land deal and to pay an additional Rs 1 crore to Kaskar if he wanted to stay alive.
“Lewis is also under the scanner for his connections with the D-gang. We will seek custody of Kaskar, along with his aides Asrarali Sayyad and Mumtaz Shaikh for questioning them on specific allegations made by the complainant. Even Chhota Shakeel and Anees are named in the case,” said an officer of the anti-extortion cell of the Thane crime branch.
The police has, meanwhile, found that after the first instalment was paid, the transfer process and documentation was delayed. The seller then sought more money for the land owing to appreciation of prices. The buyer, however, refused to pay more and he filed a civil suit.
This enraged the complainant and he approached Kaskar asking him to intervene. He not only gave the instalment of Rs 2 crore to Kaskar but also sought for threatening the buyer (complainant). Kaskar subsequently extorted an additional Rs 1 crore from him and threatened him to forego the plan of buying the land parcel.
The land is currently stuck in civil suit and the police said that it was yet to ascertain its current condition. The person who mediated in connection with the Gorai land is still being looked for, officials said.
