THE THANE police on Wednesday named fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his younger brother Anees Ibrahim as wanted accused in an extortion case registered against their younger brother Iqbal Kaskar. This is the third case of extortion registered against Kaskar, since his arrest on September 19. According to the police, this is the first time that all three brothers have been named in an FIR. An officer said that the last time Dawood was named as an accused was more than four years back after the Delhi Police chargesheeted him in a match-fixing case. A senior officer said, “During the course of investigating the third FIR, it came to light that unlike the previous two cases where Iqbal Kaskar had called up the victims, in this case, apart from him, Anees Ibrahim called up the complainant. He threatened him that Dawood Ibrahim was interested in a 38-acre plot at Gorai and that the complainant should back off. Hence, we have named Dawood and Anees as accused in addition to Kaskar.” The officer added that apart from the three siblings, they have named three builders. The Thane police registered the third FIR on Tuesday after the complainant agreed to give a formal complaint. The case concerns a 38-acre plot in Gorai. While the complainant had agreed to purchase the plot for Rs 38 crore and paid Rs 2 crore as token, the seller later demanded a much higher rate. This led to a dispute between them in 2013 and eventually the complainant filed a civil suit against the seller. In his statement to the police, the complainant said, “The seller then got two other builders involved and they set up a meeting with Iqbal Kaskar. Kaskar told me that Anees Ibrahim and Dawood Ibrahim had now purchased the property and taken the Rs 2 crore and he should forget about it. He further asked me to pay Rs 1 crore if I wanted to be alive. I was scared and paid the money.” The statement on the basis of which the FIR was registered further says, “In June 2016, while I was still pursuing the case in the Thane court, I received a call. The caller identified himself as Dawood’s brother Anees. He told me that Dawood was interested in the property and that I should withdraw the court case. He threatened me that if I did not do that, Dawood’s men will kill me. I was too afraid to complain to the police about these threats.” An officer said that they are checking if the case was withdrawn, or whether the complainant had stopped pursuing the case after the threat. Apart from the three brothers, the police have named the seller of the 38-acre plot and two other builders — who were the alleged link between the seller and Kaskar — as accused in the case. An officer said, “We have sought details about the past record of Dawood from the Mumbai police.” The Thane police has so far not made any arrest in connection with the third FIR. Earlier in the day, the Thane police sought custody of Kaskar, Mumtaz Shaikh and Israr Sayyed in connection with the second FIR in which the trio had allegedly forcibly taken Rs 15 lakh worth jewellery from a Thane-based jeweller after he refused to accept their demand. A local court remanded the trio in police custody till October 10. “After investigation in this case is complete, we will be arresting them in the third case,” an officer said.
