MUMBAI: In the third extortion case against Iqbal Kaskar in a month, his brothers — fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Anees Ibrahim — were also shown as wanted accused by the police on Wednesday.
The Thane police crime branch had registered a fresh case against Iqbal and his gang members on Tuesday — almost two weeks after the anti-extortion cell arrested him for running an extortion racket.
“We have registered a new complaint of extortion Iqbal and his gang. He had threatened a prominent builder from North Mumbai in a deal involving 38 acre land at Goari area in North Mumbai,” said a senior police official from the Thane crime branch.
During the investigation in the new case, the alleged role of Dawood and Anees also came to the light, following which both were shown wanted as accused in connection with the offence, an officer said.Dawood is the key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
The police registered the new complaint of extortion under sections 384 (extortion), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) and 387 (putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion), Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Kaskar and his gang at the Thane Nagar police station.
Iqbal and his accomplices Mumtaz Shaikh and Israr Sayyed were arrested on September 18 by the Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of Thane police, led by “encounter specialist” Pradeep Sharma and his team after a complaint of extortion against him. Taking the lead from the investigations, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a money laundering case on September 26.
They had also been booked following another complaint of extortion lodged by a Thane-based jeweller.
Recently, the AEC of the Thane crime branch had arrested Borivali-based businessman Pankaj Gangar in connection with the extortion racket.
Gangar, a close aide of “matka king” Pappu Savla, had been sending `10-15 lakh per month to Dawood’s aide Chhota Shakeel through illegal hawala transactions, the police had said earlier as they ahd enlisted Shakeel’s name as the wanted accused in the case.
Chhota Shakeel, whose role had also emerged in the extortion racket case, had been declared a wanted accused, the official said.