D-brother racket has a neta nexus

BUILDERS, corporators under scanner; Dawood role will be probed

The arrest of fugitive Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar has taken the lid off not just a thriving racket in extortion but also bared a sinister nexus between Thane corporator (s) and organised crime.

Also under the scanner would be the ‘‘direct or indirect’’ involvement of Dawood Ibrahim in the racket, which could make lead to the latter being implicated as an accused in the case.

Kaskar and his two associates had demanded in ransom four flats worth Rs 5 crores each in a posh locality of Thane and Rs 30 lakh in cash from a builder, who is also the complainant in the case; the anti-extortion cell is not divulging his full name and other particulars. The two associates of Kaskar were identified as Mumtaz Eijaz Shaikh and Israr Al-Jamil Sayyad.

Thane Police Commissioner Parambir Singh indicated during his press conference that the names of some other builders and politicians had emerged in the investigations. However, he refused to divulge the name of the corporators/ politicians who were under the scanner. Nonetheless, by evening, the name of an NCP corporator was doing the rounds in the electronic media, but there was no official confirmation of this.

"We have received over a dozen names involved in the extortion racket. Right now, we have arrested the main accused, Iqbal kaskar, whose role was to call and threaten the victims. There are local politicians, corporators and also some builders involved in this case and they seem to have helped the extortionist. We are investigating the matter further and cannot disclose the names," the CP said.

Dawood's brother was arrested from their sister Haseena Parkar’s home in Nagpada in south Mumbai late on Monday night while he was busy watching the "Kaun Banega Crorepati" and eating biryani. Political observers saw in the dropping of names by innuendo a devious design in the media to target the NCP. The national spokesperson of the NCP, Nawab Malik, rubbished the claims and threatened to file a defamation case. “There is no press note by the Thane police mentioning politicians belonging to our party. How can the media put out such falsehood? We are studying the legalities and will file defamation suits against those who try to link us to this crime,” Malik told the Free Press Journal.

Last year, builder Suraj Parmar, who had committed suicide, left behind a 13-page note in which he had blamed four sitting corporators. They were arrested for abetment of suicide and released in 2016.

The anti-extortion cell had constituted four teams and they entered Parkar’s house while he was having dinner. Former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, who was reinstated in the force some time back, led the operation.

The builder told the police he was getting threats since 2013 but never dared to approach the police. The gang members had forcibly occupied three flats in Rosa Bella apartment at Kavesar, Thane. The Rosa group has three partners, one of whom is the complainant. The complainant has charged that the calls were made in the name of Dawood gang.

The police have received almost 15 to 20 complaints of similar kind. The three accused have remanded in eight days police custody by the Thane sessions court.

Iqbal Kaskar, who was deported from the United Arab Emirates in 2003, had been handling his fugitive brother Dawood's lucrative realty businesses in Mumbai. Earlier, he was implicated in a murder case and also illegal constructions in the Sara-Sahara shopping centre in south Mumbai but was acquitted in both the matters around a decade ago.