Mumbai Police shares details of Chhota Shakeel cases

Chhota Shakeel (File)

REVERTING to a query by the Thane police on cases against fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim aide Chhota Shakeel, the Mumbai Police has provided details of the cases registered against Shakeel in the last 10 years. Sources say the information has been sought with an intention to invoke the stringent sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the Thane case in which Dawood’s younger brother Iqbal Kaskar has been arrested.

“While they have shown Dawood as a wanted accused in the case, the last chargesheet was filed against him was in 1999 by the Bandra Police station. To invoke MCOCA, there should be two chargesheets that proceeded to trial by a Sessions Court against one of the accused in the last 10 years. There are over a dozen chargesheets proceeded to trial by Sessions Court against Shakeel in the last 10 years and this would act as the base of invoking MCOCA against the accused in the Thane cases,” said an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Crime Branch, which has started summoning D-gang members have so far summoned eight of them. They include Tariq Parveen, Saleem Fruit, Altaf Khan, Nadeem Mota, Ahmed Landa, Alam Beig and Umar Baba. All of them are out on bail and have cases ranging from murder, extortion and kidnapping registered against them.

Source added that the Mumbai Police did not want to be caught off guard in the extortion cases in Mumbai and were, therefore, questioning the D-gang members. “These people were questioned in connection with the Thane case and the recent gangland activities,” added the official who refused to divulge details on the line of questioning.

Mumbai Commissioner of Police Dattatray Padsalgikar said calling history-sheeters was a routine exercise. “Calling those with criminal records for inquiry is a routine exercise carried out by the Crime Branch. Their inquiries are in progress about certain other issues that have taken place earlier,” he said.

Sources added that Anees Ibrahim had been trying to reach out to his associates in Mumbai to get updates on the cases against Iqbal. “These are mostly calls made through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) made either by Anees or his associates to get an update on the Thane case. There has been no call made by Dawood,” the source added.