Iqbal Kaskar, two others sent to judicial custody in extortion case

Thane (Maharashtra), Oct 14 (IANS) Mafia operative Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar and two other associates were sent to judicial custody for 14 days in an extortion case in which his two brothers - fugitive don Dawood and Anees - are also co-accused, an official said here on Saturday.

Iqbal, Israr Ali Sayyed and Mumtaz Sheikh were booked after a complaint lodged by a Mumbai builder that they had extorted Rs 3 crore from him in a 38-acre land deal in the coastal village of Gorai.

This is the third extortion registered by Thane Police against the trio since their arrest from Mumbai on September 18, by a crack team led by former 'encounter specialist' and Thane Anti Extortion Cell chief Pradeep Sharma.

Another close associate, 'matka' operator Pankaj Gangar, who allegedly financed these extortion rackets, was arrested from Borivali in north-west Mumbai in the same case and is currently in police custody.

It is also the first case in which the police have shown the three Kaskar brothers - Iqbal, Dawood and Anees - and their close associate Chhota Shakeel as accused, but the trio of Dawood, Anees and Chhota Shakeel has been shown as "absconding wanted-accused" since they are said to be in Pakistan, as per Iqbal Kaskar's statement to the police.

On October 11, in the first of the three cases, the Thane police had slapped the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions against all the accused, which will make it very difficult for them to secure bail. The case pertained to extortion of Rs 30 lakhs and four flats from a Thane builder.

Besides the above two cases, the Thane AEC has registered another case of threats and extortion following a complaint by a local jeweler against Iqbal Kaskar, who was deported from the UAE in 2003.