The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday morning detained gangster Chhota Shakeel's aide Salim Qureshi aka Salim Fruit in Mumbai after conducting raids at over 20 places here and in adjoining Thane district against associates of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The central agency also said it has seized several incriminating documents.
The NIA picked up Qureshi, the husband of Shakeel's sister-in-law, from his residence in Bhendi Bazar area of south Mumbai.
Here's all you need to know about Salim Fruit
Salim Qureshi aka Salim Fruit is the brother-in-law of the gangster Chhota Shakeel, who is the henchman of Dawood Ibrahim. Known as Salim Fruit as his family business is of selling fruits in South Mumbai, he is also considered a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim while Chhota Shakeel is a gangster and a contract or supari killer who used to run an extortion racket through his henchmen.
Shakeel allegedly operates from Pakistan for Dawood Ibrahim. If reports are to be believed, Salim Fruit had also visited the home of Chhota Shakeel in Pakistan three to four times.
Other cases against Salim Fruit:
Salim Qureshi was also accused of running an extortion racket for Shakeel and Ibrahim abroad in the early 2000 and he was deported to India by the UAE government in 2006. He was arrested in an extortion case related to Chhota Shakeel and charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) along with others and was in prison till 2010.
Later, in 2016, he was again arrested by the Anti-Extortion Cell of Mumbai police in connection with a case tracing back to 2004.
Salim Fruit's aides had allegedly threatened a Central Mumbai based doctor and demanded Rs 25 lakh extortion. After negotiation, the amount was settled at Rs 10 lakh and the Crime Branch arrested two people red-handed when they had come to collect the money.
Meanwhile, the central agency conducted raids at a housing society in Mumbai's Nagpada area, Bhendi Bazar, Santacruz, Mahim, Goregaon areas of Mumbai, Mumbra in Thane and other places against associates of Dawood Ibrahim.
Several hawala operators and drug peddlers were allegedly associated with Ibrahim, official said.
In February this year, the Enforcement Directorate had questioned Qureshi as part of its probe in a money laundering case linked to Dawood Ibrahim.
