10 deportees from UAE remanded to police custody

Mumbai, Nov 22: All ten aides India's most wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who were deported from United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday, were today remanded to police custody till December 5 by two local courts.

While Anjum Phajalani, a close aide of Dawood's lieutenant Chhota Shakeel, was remanded by the MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) court, the remaining nine were sent to police custody by the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S Y Shishode.

Anjum was arrested for his alleged involvement in the diamond merchant Bharat Shah case. It is alleged he had threatened actor Salman Khan to reduce down his professional fees for acting in the film '' Chori Chori Chupke Chupke''. The film was produced by Nasim Rizvi and financed by Bharat Shah in 2000, allegedly at the instance of Chotta Shakeel. Rizvi was convicted for his nexus with underworld, while Shah was convicted for not disclosing the threat calls he got to police but let off as he had already spent sometime in prison.

The remaining nine deportees, too, have been arrested under extortion charges. They are Arif Sheikh (43), Shahid Qureshi (33), Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit (33), Jamil Shaikh alias Baba Sanjay (31), Shaikh Mohammed Suleman (42), Sayyed Zaki Mehandi (39), Mustafa Ameen Gulam Mehmood (31), Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh alias Khota Shakeel (36) and Abdul Aziz Dholakia (50).

Arif, brother-in-law of Shakeel, was alleged to have sheltered the killers of Gujarat MLA Haren Pandya. Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh alias Khota Shakeel was allegedly used by Chotta Shakeel to intimidate and collect protection money from businessmen in south Mumbai. Khota earned his nickname because his voice matched with that of his boss Shakeel. Salim Quereshi alias Salim Fruit, married to Shakeel's sister-in-law, used to be a fruit seller in Null Bazar before entering the drug empire of Shakeel. Shahid Quereshi is a co-brother of Shakeel.

During proceedings in the court, the prosecution disclosed the time of their arrest at 0820 hrs yesterday. But defence charged the police with having kept them in illegal detention for two hours, claiming the accused were taken into custody at 0620 hrs - the time they alighted from a flight from UAE at the international airport.

All nine accused, brought to the court in three groups of three each, were wanted by the anti-extortion cell of Mumbai police but their cases were transferred to the Crime Branch which effected the arrests.

UNI

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