Iqbal Kaskar, his gang members booked for extortion case in Thane

Mumbai, Oct 3: Fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar and his gang members have been booked in a fresh case of extorting Rs 3 crore from a prominent builder in north Mumbai, the police said.

This is the third extortion case registered against Kaskar and his gang members after their arrest in connection with a probe into an extortion racket last month, a police official said. "As per the fresh complaint from a a prominent builder in north Mumbai, Kaskar had threatened and extorted Rs 3 crore from him over a deal of a 38-acre land in the Gorai area," he added.

The complainant alleged that Kaskar had collected the money from him in two instalments. "We have registered a 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), IPC against Kaskar and his gang at the Thane Nagar police station," a senior police official of the Thane crime branch said.

Kaskar and two of his aides -- Mumtaz Sheikh and Israr Ali Jamil Sayyad -- were arrested on September 18 by the Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Thane police, led by "encounter specialist" Pradeep Sharma and his team, in an extortion case of Rs 30 lakh and four flats from a builder. 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 Rs 10-15 lakh per month to Dawood's aide Chhota Shakeel, the police had said earlier. He used to transfer the money to Shakeel through illegal hawala transactions, they had said. Chhota Shakeel, whose role had also emerged in the extortion racket case, had been declared a wanted accused, the official said.

PTI