Mumbai: Iqbal Kaskar to be produced before PMLA court on Friday

Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar will be produced before a special court in the city on Friday in connection with a money laundering case related to his brother that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing.

The court passed an order to that effect on Wednesday after the central agency approached it for a production warrant against Kaskar. Kaskar is currently in judicial custody in another case. Appearing for the ED, prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar argued for a production warrant to be issued against Kaskar. Special judge MG Deshpande ordered that the ED make arrangements to escort and produce him before the court on Friday.

On Tuesday, the ED had conducted searches at various premises related to Ibrahim including that of the son of his sister Haseena Parkar. Premises of Salim Fruit, who is closely related to the gangster’s close aide Chhota Shakeel, was also among as many as 10 locations searched by the ED’s officers. On Tuesday, Fruit was also detained after the search and questioned for many hours, after which he was allowed to leave. The agency suspects he had been handling a major chunk of Ibrahim’s activities.

The agency’s case is based on one registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Ibrahim after the agency learnt that he had been financing money through hawala channels to his aides for creating unrest in the country through terror activities.