Police probe Kaskar's dinner date with Thane corporators at his Nagpada home

Mumbai: A Thane police probe against fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar, who was arrested in an alleged extortion probe on Monday, revealed that the accused had allegedly met two Thane city corporators at his Nagpada residence over dinner in 2016. While probing Kaskar’s links with politicians, the police is trying to find out what transpired at that meeting, and if the corporators were in any way linked to the his illegal activities.

The two Thane-based corporators belong to different political parties and officials said that the meeting was to ‘discuss’ some important matters. “The two corporators, whose names we cannot reveal at the moment, went there on a couple of occasions to meet Kaskar. The purpose of their meeting with Kaskar is not known as yet. Officials said that Kaskar is not cooperating completely with them,” said a Thane police officer.

“We have learnt of such meetings taking place between Kaskar and the two corporators and we are interrogating him in its connection so as to obtain more details about it,” said Param Bir Singh, Thane police commissioner.

Police officials said Kaskar was addicted to cocaine and was going through withdrawal symptoms. Hence, they are conducting a medical check up of his vital parameters every 48 hours.

Following Kaskar’s arrest on Monday night, the police had revealed that the gangster and his two aides Asrarali Sayyad (52) and Mumtaz Shaikh, (48), had political backing in Thane. Some politicians, including the two corporators, were operating hand in glove with the gang.

The gang had been targeting property developers for development rights of land parcels and would allegedly also look for disputed properties. The dispute would be taken to Kaskar who would then threaten the victims in the name of Dawood and extort from them.

Two cases of extortion have already been registered against Kaskar, Sayyad and Shaikh in the last two days and now the role of the two politicians is being verified, said the police.