Chotta Shakeel, Iqbal Kaskar were in touch

Mumbai: Pakistan-based fugitive gangster, Chotta Shakeel, a top aide of the much-wanted Dawood Ibrahim, has been named as an accused in the extortion cases being probed against Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar by the Thane Crime Branch. Officials learnt that Kaskar was in touch with Shakeel, who would pass on orders pertaining to extortion targets. According to the police, they were unable to track conversations between the two as they were using the Internet–based Voice Over Internet Protocol calls to stay in touch.

The fact that Shakeel and Kaskar were allegedly in touch was revealed by the latter and two of his aides, Asrarali Sayyad and Mumtaz Shaikh, during interrogations. The trio had been nabbed in two separate cases extortion on September 18 by the anti-extortion cell (AEC) of the Thane crime branch.

Shakeel’s name had last cropped up in 2016, after the Mumbai crime branch arrested three of his henchmen for plotting the murder of Iqbal Attarwala. There was a monetary dispute over a redevelopment project in south Mumbai, between them and Shakeel, who fled from India in 1986, had allegedly plotted his murder. Attarwala, who had been deported from Dubai in 2007, had past cases against him in which he had been aquitted.

The current probe has thrown out four names, including that of Pankaj Gangar, a Borivali resident, who allegedly funded the procurement of arms for the henchmen of the D-gang.  The other names include Shammi and Guddu, two shooters from Bihar, who assisted the gang in their extortion business. “These are crucial links of the gang that operated in Thane and Navi Mumbai. Shakeel was in touch with Kaskar and would pass information about potential targets for extortion,” said a Thane crime branch officer. A police team has been sent to Bihar to track down the two shooters who worked for the D-gang, officials said.

The trio has revealed during interrogation that Shammi and Guddu have a criminal past and are involved in several cases in Bihar.

“Shaikh is a native of Patna and knows the duo. Whenever they would commit an offence in Bihar, Mumtaz used to give them shelter at his residence in Mumbra,” added the officer.

The police suspects that the duo had also fired a few rounds at a project site in Thane, however, the spot is yet to be identified and the concerned complainant is yet to be traced.

The officials also stated that they had found documents of one of four flats that were extorted from one of the property developers. Shaikh was occupying the flat when the case was registered and hence the property papers are an important piece of evidence in the case.

Meanwhile, the trio was produced in Thane court on Wednesday and were remanded to further police custody of four days. The investigators told the court that they had identified some persons who need to be arrested and that they needed more time to question the accused.

Defence lawyer, Shyam Keswani told the court, “New persons being identified is a farce. The police had told the court the same thing even during the previous remand production. If it is true, how much time does it take in the age of technology to reach Bihar and find those persons.”