The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of Thane Police arrested one person in connection with the extortion racket run by Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar, who is in police custody, official sources said on Thursday.
A team of AEC nabbed Pankaj Gangar, from his residence at Sodawala Lane in Boricali west, noth-west Mumbai.
He is involved in a betting racket and provided funds for Kaskar’s extortion activities.
On late September 18, Kaskar and two of his associates – Israr Jamil Sayyed and Mumtaz Ejaz Shaikh – were picked up for threatening a prominent builder of Thane and for extracting four flats in a posh area and three million cash from him.
Police are on the lookout for hitmen from Bihar, Mumbai and unidentified persons who supplied them with weapons.
On Wednesday, the court extended the police custody Iqbal Kaskar and his two associates by four days.
The Enforcement Directorate has also begun an investigation against Iqbal Kaskar, and three others for extortion and illegal transfer of property.
Earlier, Kaskar’s counsel Shyam Keswani argued that the details of the ongoing investigation were coming out first in the media and most of them are irrelevant to the probe.
He said the alleged visit of Mahejabin Shaikh, wife of Dawood Ibrahim, to India and Dubai, or how the Kaskar family watched together Hindi film “Haseena Parkar”, bore no relevance to the present case. The eponymous movie’s story is based on Dawood’s sister’s life.
Keswani also questioned how the investigation was taking so long with the advent of modern technology which he said should have speeded up the probe.
(With agency inputs)