Mumbai: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday sent Arif Sheikh and Shabbir Sheikh, both alleged aides of wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, to judicial custody. The two brothers were arrested by the NIA earlier this month as part of the agency's crackdown against Dawood's anti-India activities.
According to officials, both the accused were produced before the court on Friday after their custody period expired. The NIA did not seek further custody of the duo, and they were subsequently remanded in judicial custody.
Both the accused are brothers-in-law of Shakeel Babumiyan Sheikh alias Chhota Shakeel, who is Dawood's right-hand man and handles all the operations of his criminal syndicate. Shakeel himself has also been named as an accused in the case by the NIA, along with Mushtaq alias Tiger Memon and Javed Patel alias Javed Chikna, the two main accused in the 1993 serial blasts case.
It is the NIA's case that Dawood and the other accused have been consistently engaged in anti-India activities since Dawood fled from India in the 1980s. The D-gang, according to the NIA, is involved in several illegal activities, like arms trafficking, narco terrorism, circulation of fake currency and acquisition of assets to fund terrorist activities. The accused have been booked under the stringent Umlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Arif and Shabbir have been charged with handling the gang's illegal activities and financial transactions in India. The NIA had on May 12 conducted raids at 29 locations in Mumbai and questioned several suspects, after which the two brothers were arrested.
Based on the NIA's case, the Enforcement Directorate had initiated its own investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and arrested senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik in February this year.
