Sara-Sahara case: Iqbal Kaskar, 5 others surrender; granted bail

Mumbai, Sep 26 (UNI) The special MCOCA court today granted bail of Rs 25,000 each to six persons, including fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar, who surrendered themselves before the special court in the Sara-Sahara case following a Bombay High Court directive.

The six were acquitted by the MCOCA court judge M R Bhatkar earlier in the illegal construction of the twin shopping complexes case but surrendered before court today on the directive of the Bombay High Court.

Besides Iqbal Kaskar, the other five include Kiran Acharekar, Narendra Rajbhar, Hasmukh Shah and Shirish Salvekar (all civic engineers), and Gulam Navi Tanvar, a builder. Simultaneously, the six also moved bail applications.

Judge Bhatkar granted them bail of Rs 25,000 to be paid tomorrow and a surety of like amount by October 8.

The six were acquitted by judge Bhatkar on June 13 this year due to lack of evidence. Three others Abdul Sattar, Abdul Rehman Sheikh and Tariq Parvin, believed to be close aides of Dawood, were convicted.

The State government had challenged the MCOCA court's judgement in Bombay High Court following which the High Court had directed all of them to surrender before the regular court.

As per the prosecution case, all those implicated in the case had constructed illegal shopping complexes on a Central Public Works Department (CPWD) land that was reserved for the construction of a school.

Earlier, special public prosecutor Rohini Salian sought a day's time to file a reply on the bail applications but the court rejected the plea.

UNI