AEC arrests Dawood’s close aide Riyaz Bhati

They have allegedly extorted a sum of ₹7.5 lakh and also forcibly took away Range Rover, worth around ₹30 lakh, from a city businessman

Mumbai The Anti-extortion cell (AEC) of the Mumbai crime branch has arrested gangster Riyaz Bhati, a close associate of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, in an extortion case in which gangster Chhota Shakeel’s brother in-law Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit is also an accused.

The extortion case was registered with Versova police station on Monday and transferred to AEC for further probe (HT PHOTO)

They have allegedly extorted a sum of ₹7.5 lakh and also forcibly took away Range Rover, worth around ₹30 lakh, from a city businessman. The extortion case was registered with Versova police station on Monday and transferred to AEC for further probe.

Salim Fruit is currently in judicial custody after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on August 4 in connection with the terror funding case registered in Delhi on February 3 against Dawood Ibrahim, his brother Anees and their close confidant Chhota Shakeel among others for their alleged involvement in arms smuggling, narco-terrorism, money laundering, circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes and in unauthorised possession or involvement in acquisition of assets for raising terror funds and working in active collaboration with terrorists organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Al Qaeda.

After NIA arrested Salim Fruit, Riyaz Bhati had met the complainant in Lokhandwala complex in Andheri and made to sit in his vehicle and threatened him that if he said anything against Salim Fruit to the NIA or any other police officer, he will invite anger of the entire D-Company, said a police officer.

Bhati was arrested from Andheri late in the evening on Monday.

The AEC is also investigating a cheating and forgery case registered against Fruit at Dadar police station last month for allegedly using his underworld connections to acquire 50% share in a south Mumbai property by using fabricated documents.

In August, last year, Bhati was also booked in an extortion case in which former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and dismissed police officer Sachin Waze were booked by Goregaon police. The complainant, hotelier Bimal Agarwal, had alleged that the accused extorted ₹11.92 lakh from him and had threatened to raid his Boho Restaurant and BCB Bar and register cases against the establishments.

Police said, in February 2020, Bhati was detained at Mumbai International Airport when he allegedly tried to flee to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In 2019, he was arrested by unit I of the Mumbai crime branch in two extortion cases registered against him at Amboli and Juhu police stations. He was released on bail in October 2019.