NCB gets custody of Iqbal Kaskar for one day

Iqbal Kaskar is brought to NCB’s office in Ballard Estate on Friday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

As it widened its probe into the recent seizure of charas brought from PoK border, the NCB took into custody Iqbal Kaskar, brother of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, on Friday. The agency says Kaskar had been in touch with a now-arrested drug dealer, Shabir Usman Shaikh, since 2007.

A Bhiwandi court gave Kaskar's custody to the Narcotics Control Bureau for a day after it said his name had cropped up during the investigation into the drug case. Kaskar has been lodged in Thane jail since 2017 in a MCOCA case.

NCB officers said Shaikh is a big name in the drug trade. Every month, he used to deliver 10kg to 15kg charas to the city. The contraband was routed from Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab and then to Mumbai.

NCB's zonal director Samir Wankhede told mid-day, "Iqbal Kaskar's name has come up in the interrogation of the arrested accused [Shaikh]. We are verifying his link." After questioning Kaskar, NCB officers said, they would grill him and Shaikh together.

On June 15, NCB intercepted Shaikh and Nizamuddin Ahmad Taza with 12 kg of charas at Arjun Ali toll plaza in Bhiwandi. Their arrest led the anti-drug agency to Kaskar.