Mumbai: Iqbal Kaskar, under arrest for allegedly running an extortion racket in the city and its suburbs, made frequent trips to Nashik, where his relative, a hardened criminal identified by the police as Jaggu Kokani, resides.
An officer with the Thane Police Crime Branch, which arrested Mr. Kaskar and three others for allegedly extorting money and flats from a Thane-based builder, said, “We are getting more details of Mr. Kokani’s criminal record from the Nashik Police, and are probing if Mr. Kaskar was running an extortion racket in Nashik as well.”
After the Thane builder filed an FIR for extortion against him, a jeweller too filed a similar complaint. Mr. Kaskar, brother of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, allegedly extorted money from builders, jewellers and businessmen in Thane, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in Dawood’s name.
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At least four to five Thane residents are also under the scanner for allegedly providing information on potential targets to Mr. Kaskar. These suspects are said to be businessmen and involved in real estate. “We are still working on gathering evidence against them; some arrests are possible in the next two to three days,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, police said Mr. Kaskar claimed during interrogation on Friday that he had last spoken to Dawood’s wife Mehjabeen over phone in 2016. “According to him, Mehjabeen had gone to Dubai to meet his wife, who lives there. She had called him from there, and they spoke briefly. He claimed this was the last time he spoke to her,” an officer, who was part of the interrogation, said.