Cop dismissed for alleged links with underworld arrests Dawood Ibrahim’s brother
Amid much drama on Monday evening, the Thane Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) arrested wanted crime lord Dawood Ibrahim’s younger brother Iqbal Kaskar, along with two other accomplices. Following a complaint of extortion lodged by a Thane-based builder at the Kasarvadavali police station, Kaskar and two others were arrested by former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, who was made a senior inspector of the AEC in Thane last month.
According to sources, the Thane base builder mentioned in his complaint that Kaskar has taken four houses from him and is demanding for more. Confirming police interrogations in the matter, an official said, “The builder had approached Kaskar in the past to settle a dispute pertaining to a plot, in lieu of which he demanded four houses from the builder, which he obliged. However, when Kaskar recently asked for one more property, the builder approached the Thane police and lodged a complaint.”
Sources have further confirmed that the police is looking for a possibility of cioltiong provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA). Following a complaint from the builder a quick response team sealed the building in Nagpada, and a team headed by Pradeep Sharma took Kaskar into custody. Kaskar shifted to the apartment of his late sister Haseena Parkar in the building alleged to be a stronghold of the D-gang.
Interestingly, the police official who headed the team to arrest Kaskar was dismissed in 2008 for allegedly having connections with the underworld. Dismissed in accordance to the provisions of Article 311 of the Constitution, Sharma, an inspiration behind several Bollywood movies, is credited for 113 encounters. However after challenging his dismissal, the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) ruled in favor of Sharma in 2009 but the state government further challenged the judgment in the Bombay High Court. Furthermore, the controversial police official was arrested by the Special Investigation Team in 2010 for allegedly killing criminal Lakhan Bhaiyya in a ‘fake’ encounter.
Earlier, Dawood’s brother, Iqbal Kaskar had been arrested in 2015, after an estate agent Salim Sheikh complained against him claiming that the underworld figure demanded Rs 3 lakh after thrashing him.