<![CDATA[NEW DELHI: Iqbal Kaskar, brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested on charges of extortion on Monday. Thane Anti-Extortion Cell picked up Kaskar from his Mumbai residence. Former encounter specialist Mr. Pradeep Sharma who just took charge of the Thane AEC earlier this month led Kaskar's arrest. A police team had been keeping tabs on Kaskar since his name cropped up in the investigation. Kaskar is not alone as two more names of builders from Thane and Mumbra had cropped up in connection to the case. One builder who is under the radar was arrested in an alleged abetment to suicide case two years ago. Police said that Kaskar had been threatening builders on behalf of Dawood Ibrahim and was demanding huge extortion money as a cut for his brother. Many of these builders who are from Thane, Ulhasnagar, Dombivli had allegedly paid huge sums of extortion money to Kaskar. In fact, one builder who had suffered significant losses during the demonetisation and was under debt, had filed the complaint against Kaskar. Beside the complaint there are conversation where Kaskar and his accomplice are heard threatening builders and demanding money. The complainant was tired of Kaskar's threats and approached Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh, who after studying the complaint and evidence directed Pradeep Sharma to go ahead with the investigation. There are also reports that Kaskar is likely to be booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). This isn't Kaskar's first brush with the law. He was arrested in an extortion acase in February 2015 and granted bail. A real estate agent, Mohammed Salim Shaikh, had filed a complaint acsusing Kaskar and his men of assaulting him and demanding Rs 3 lakh. Kaskar, who is Dawood's youngest brother, was wanted in a murder case. He was also alleged to have played a role in the controversial Sara Sahara case where a building came up illegally on government land, but a court acquitted him in both the cases in 2007.]]>
