A special court on Friday acquitted Iqbal Kaskar, the brother of underworld fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, from charges of extortion linked to a complaint filed by a developer in Thane in 2017.
Kaskar and two others were cleared of all charges, including under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). He will, however, remain in custody in a case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) linked to the same offence. In June 2024, a court in Thane acquitted Kaskar from a similar offence of extortion.
An FIR was filed in Thane in 2017 against Kaskar, Israr Sayyed, Mumtaz Shaikh and Pankaj Gangar, along with underworld don and D-gang member Shakeel Babu Miya Shaikh alias Chhota Shakeel named as a wanted accused.
The MCOCA was invoked in the case, based on the pending cases against Chhota Shakeel with the police, claiming that he and Kaskar were the leaders of the crime syndicate. Mumtaz Shaikh passed away in February pending trial while Kaskar was in judicial custody.
It was alleged that Sayyed and Shaikh had approached a Thane-based developer and said that they were working at the behest of Kaskar to resolve a dispute related to the plot the developer was working on.
The Thane police had alleged that Kaskar had demanded four flats and Rs 30 lakh as extortion money for the developer to go ahead with the construction. In his complaint, the builder claimed Kaskar had forcefully got one flat registered in the name of Shaikh, including the payment of Rs 3.30 lakh for registration and stamp duty. The complainant also alleged that Kaskar had called him and given him life threats if he did not pay up.
The complainant claimed that Gangar had helped the other three with logistics and was in touch with them through an international number.
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Kaskar, through his lawyer Tabish Mooman, claimed that there was no evidence to show that he was involved in any extortion. He said he also did not have any pending cases against him before these cases were filed in 2017. Lawyers for the other accused—advocates Sudeep Pasbola, Baba Shaikh and Aamir Shaikh—-said there was nothing to prove that any transaction that had taken place in the development project was by way of extortion.
Special judge B D Shelke acquitted the accused, citing lack of evidence. The detailed order is yet to be made available. The trial in the ED case is pending.
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