Mumbai: A Thane holiday court on Sunday remanded Iqbal Kaskar and two associates in judicial custody till October 13, while rejecting the Thane Police Anti-Extortion Cell’s plea for an extension of police custody. Mr. Kaskar, Mumtaz Sheikh and Israr Ali Sayyed were arrested arrested for allegedly extorting money and four flats from a Thane-based builder.
Police said the trio extorted ₹30 lakh from the builder in 2013, and later demanded more money. When he failed to come up with the money, they forcibly took four flats in his housing project, and sold three of them. Mr. Shaikh was living in the fourth flat, police said.
On Friday, the Thane Police Crime Branch had arrested Pankaj Gangar alias Pankaj Shah, a hawala operator based in Borivali. Police alleged Mr. Shah had paid ₹15 lakh to arrange for two shooters from Bihar to threaten the developer. They said Mr. Kaskar and his co-accused have been named in an FIR filed by a Thane-based jeweller, who alleged that Mr. Kaskar had extorted cash and jewellery worth ₹15 lakh from him in 2016.
On Tuesday, the Crime Branch will seek police custody for the three accused in the jeweller extortion case. Police Inspector Pradip Sharma said, “We will arrest Iqbal Kaskar in another case by Tuesday. In this case, Mr. Kaskar and others extorted money and jewellery from a Thane-based jeweller.”