Court remands Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar to ED custody
A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Friday remanded Dawood Ibrahim’s younger brother Iqbal Kaskar to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till February 24
Mumbai A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Friday remanded Dawood Ibrahim’s younger brother Iqbal Kaskar to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till February 24.
ED is investigating the money laundering aspects of the purported illegal activities of the Ibrahim gang and has registered an Enforcement Case Information Report on the basis of two FIRs - one registered by Thane police in September 2017 against Kaskar and others and another recently registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The fugitive gangster is allegedly working in active collaboration with known terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al Qaeda.
The agency on Friday produced Kaskar before special PMLA judge M G Deshpande, pursuant to a production warrant issued by the court on Wednesday.
Special prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar informed the court that in September 2017, Thane police has registered a case against Kaskar and others for using the name of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and extorting money from builders.
Kaskar and his accomplices allegedly extorted a flat and ₹90 lakh in cash from one of the builders, a complainant said. According to ED, the flat and the extortion amount are proceeds of crime covered under Section 2 (1) (u) of the PMLA.
Venegaonkar also pointed out that on February 3, 2022, NIA has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar alias Dawood Bhai who has been designated as a ‘global terrorist’ by the United Nations under United Nations Security Resolution 1267 and also listed under the Fourth Schedule of the UAPA Act, 1967, runs an international terrorist network namely D Company, which is involved in various terrorism/criminal activities such as smuggling, Narco-Terrorism, underworld criminal syndicate, money laundering, circulation of FICN, unauthorised possession/acquisition of key assets for raising terror funds and is working in active collaboration with international terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al Qaeda.
“After Dawood left India, he started controlling his activities through Anees Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Javed Chikna, Tiger Memon, Iqbal Mirchi and deceased Haseena Parkar,” Venegaonkar told the court.
The ED counsel added that the D company has established a special unit for striking terror in people of Indian by attacking eminent personalities including leaders, businessmen and others with explosives/firearms and is planning to instigate and trigger incidents that may lead to the onset of violence in various parts of India, including national capital Region, Mumbai and other major cities in India.
“The interrogation of the accused is the need of the hour and in the interest of investigation of the offence of money laundering as he being the key conspirator and leader of the syndicate,” Venegaonkar informed the court, seeking Kaskar’s seven days ED custody.
Appearing for Kaskar, advocate Sultan Khan responded to the prayer by informing the court that Kaskar has been lodged in jail since 2017. So far, he was booked only in one case along with Dawood and even in that case, he was acquitted. “Just because I am the brother of Dawood, they have arrested me. I haven’t committed any offence. However, I am ready to co-operate with the investigators and ready to undergo ED custody.”
The advocate insisted that no confessional statement of Kaskar should be recorded by the agency.
The special court then remanded Kaskar to seven days of ED custody, observing that the prayer for ED custody was justified considering the compass of inquiry, gravity and magnitude of the offence.
Kaskar, the youngest brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested by Thane police in September 2017 from his residence in Nagpada in South Mumbai in connection with multiple extortion cases registered against him at Thane.
