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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar from Thane jail in connection with a money laundering case registered against Dawood and his aides. A special court sent him to ED’s custody till February 24.
Kaskar was brought from Thane jail and produced before Special Judge M G Deshpande after the court, earlier this week, issued a production warrant against him. Kaskar has been in jail after being charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), following three cases of extortion registered against him by the Thane Police in 2017. The ED said that it was probing money laundering of proceeds of crime linked to one of the extortion cases against Kaskar. It was suspected that Kaskar was regularly receiving substantial proceeds of crimes from his brother, said the ED.
Special Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegavkar also submitted that the ED probe is linked to a complaint registered by the National Investigation Agency earlier this month against Ibrahim and top members of his gang including Chhota Shakeel, Javed Chikna, Tiger Memon, Anees Ibrahim and others.
Venegavkar submitted that its probe so far had shown that Kaskar was involved in extortion by pressuring various builders and celebrities with the help of his brother Dawood Ibrahim’s image as a global terrorist. He submitted that Ibrahim’s gang, referred to as D-company, has established a special unit for striking terror in the people of India by attacking eminent personalities, using explosives and triggering incidents that may lead to the onset of violence.
It was claimed that Kaskar’s extortion activities included forceful registration of a flat in his name and Rs 90 lakh each from two individuals. The ED sought his custody, stating that it wants to probe further into hawala money transactions and locate the trail of the proceeds of crime.
Lawyer Sultan Khan, representing Kaskar, said that he has been in jail since 2017 and has no cases in which his brother is his co-accused. Khan submitted that Kaskar was acquitted in a previous case where Ibrahim was named a wanted accused. Khan said that Kaskar was willing to cooperate with the ED and may be sent to its custody. Khan filed a plea stating that Kaskar would not want to give any statement to inculpate himself.
The ED is probing a money laundering case against Ibrahim and his gang members after it found several hawala transactions linked to money illegally obtained through extortion, drug trafficking, sale of real estate in Mumbai, and other unlawful activities. The agency has also questioned gangster Chota Shakeel’s brother-in-law Salim Fruit in this case.
