After NCB grilling, Iqbal Kaskar back in Thane jail

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday returned Iqbal Kaskar, brother of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, to Thane jail after interrogating him for a day in connection with a drug trafficking case

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday returned Iqbal Kaskar, brother of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, to Thane jail after interrogating him for a day in connection with a drug trafficking case.

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NCB had on June 15 arrested seven persons from Mumbai and Thane and seized 17.3 kilograms of hashish from them. Preliminary probe had revealed that two of the arrested accused — Rajvinder Singh and Gurmit Singh — had travelled from Punjab to Mumbai on bikes, purportedly carrying the contraband in their backpacks.

Investigation in the case has revealed that one of the seven arrested accused, Shabbir Shaikh, was Kaskar’s close aide, following which the probing agency took his custody on Friday from Thane jail, where he has been lodged in an extortion case.

In 2015, both Kaskar and Shaikh were arrested by JJ Marg police for allegedly assaulting a real estate broker after he refused to fulfil their demand of ₹3 lakh protection money, said a NCB officer. After coming out on bail, Shaikh got involved in drug trafficking and Kaskar had allegedly contacted him from jail many times, said the NCB officer. The officer added that the agency will decide whether to rope in Kaskar as an accused in the drug trafficking case or not, after evaluating evidence.

Kaskar, deported from the United Arab Emirates in 2003, was arrested by the anti-extortion cell of Thane Police on September 18, 2017, along with two of his accomplices — Mumtaz Shaikh and Israr Sayyed — for allegedly extorting ₹30 lakh from a Thane-based builder.