A special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Friday remanded underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) custody till Thursday, Feb 24.
On Wednesday, the ED had sought a production warrant from the special court so that Kaskar, who is in custody at Thane jail in an extortion case, be produced before the court for his custody in a case it is probing. The court had issued a warrant for Kaskar to be produced before it on Friday by the ED.
Accordingly, he was produced before the court around 2.45 pm. The court asked him as per procedure, if he has any complaint against the ED officers who produced him before the court and he answered in the negative. Seeking his custody for seven days, the agency’s prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar told the court that the ED is probing the money laundering aspect in a case lodged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on financing of terror activities by Dawood. He told the court that after being deported to India, Kaskar had been extorting money from various builders and celebrities by pressuring them using his brother’s image. It said he had used his henchmen for the act and collected money on behalf of his brother. Its remand report submitted before the court stated that it has evidence in its possession that Kaskar had been regularly receiving substantial proceeds of crime from Dawood. It also called him a ‘key conspirator’ and ‘leader of the syndicate’.
Kaskar’s advocate Sultan Khan told the court that he was only being implicated as he is the brother of Dawood. However, he said that Kaskar was willing to undergo custodial interrogation as sought by the ED.
Special Judge MG Deshpande said in his order that considering the purpose of inquiry, gravity and magnitude of the offence, the prayer of the ED is justified and remanded Kaskar to the agency’s custody till Feb 24.
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