Eminent personalities on D-gang’s hitlist: ED

Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood ibrahim’s brother, being taken into custody, at the Enforcement Directorate office on Friday. Pic/PTI

Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company has established a special unit to strike terror among the people of India by attacking eminent personalities in the country, said the Enforcement Directorate as it sought the custody of the fugitive gangster's brother Iqbal Kaskar in a money laundering case. Accepting ED's submission, a special court on Friday granted the custody of Kaskar to the agency for seven days.

Kaskar has been lodged in a Thane jail since 2017 following his arrest in an alleged extortion case in which the Thane police have already filed the charge sheet. The ED has booked him in a money-laundering case based on an FIR registered by the National Investigation Agency.

Citing the case by the NIA, the agency in its remand application said that the FIR has named Dawood Ibrahim as an accused saying that he runs an international terror network, namely D-Company, which is involved in various terrorist and criminal activities such as arms smuggling, narco-terrorism, underworld criminal syndicate, money laundering and circulation of fake notes. Dawood is working in active collaboration with international terrorist organisations, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Al Qaeda, says NIA.

Why ED sought Kaskar's custody

"D-Company under Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his aforementioned associates has established a special unit to strike terror in India by attacking eminent personalities like political leaders, businessman and others by using explosives/firearms and other lethal weapons and is planning to instigate and trigger incidents which may lead to the onset of violence in various parts of India, including NCR, Mumbai and other major cities in India." ED's remand application reads.

As per ED, since Dawood left India he has been controlling his network and criminal activities with the help of his close associates like Haji Anees, alias Anees Ibrahim Shaikh, Shakeel Shaikh, alias Chhota Shakeel, Javed Patel, alias Javed Chikhna, Ibrahim Mushtaq Abdul Razzaq Memon, alias Tiger Memon, and now-dead lqbal Mirchi and Hassena Parker. All these members have been named in the FIR registered by NIA.

To make the probe against the Dawood gang effective, ED said, it is conducting a money-laundering investigation, too.

Kaskar used name of ‘bhai'

Citing its initial probe, the agency told the special ED court that it has found that since Kaskar was deported to India he started extorting money from builders and celebrities by using his brother's image as a global terrorist.

"He used his henchmen for this act and collected money on behalf of Dawood Ibrahim. ED has evidence in its possession that Iqbal Kaskar was regularly receiving substantial proceeds of crime from Dawood Ibrahim," according to ED's remand application.

The agency also claimed that Kaskar is a prominent member of the D-gang. Though it didn't reveal the exact amount of the proceeds of crime that went to Kaskar, ED told the court that he has received R90 lakh and a flat through extortion.

Kaskar told the court that he was not ill-treated by the ED. Initially, he said that he didn't have a lawyer, but advocate Sultan Khan appeared for him later. Khan said Kaskar has been falsely framed in the case. "I am ready to cooperate with the investigation," Khan told the court.

After he was handed over to ED for seven days, Kaskar submitted an application before the court saying he was not willing to make any confessional statement before the agency and they could investigate whatever they wanted. The court first said that such an application cannot be accepted as it can't stop the agency to investigate but later accepted it. The court also allowed Kaskar to get food and medicine from home.

7
No. of days that Kaskar will be in custody of ED