Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar's younger brother, Iqbal, who was acquitted in the Sara-Sahara Shopping Mall case by a special MCOCA court in 2007, has changed his surname to Shaikh, reports DNA.
The fact came to light when Iqbal's petition seeking a passport came up for hearing in the Bombay high court on Monday.
A division bench of justices Ranjana Desai and Mridula Bhatkar were surprised to notice that Iqbal had dropped his family name.
When questioned about this sudden change, Iqbal's lawyer Jagdish Shetty informed the court that this was done in April 2009 and the surname had also been gazetted. "An official notification has been given in the gazette to this regard," Shetty said.
Later, while talking to the media outside the court Shetty said: "He had to face harassment wherever he used to go because of his surname. Dealing with government agencies was especially difficult, so he changed his surname to Shaikh in April last year."
Meanwhile the ministry of external affairs refused to issue new passport to Iqbal. The ministry order said that a passport cannot be issued to Iqbal as he "is likely to use it to aid and abet Dawood Ibrahim". Iqbal's original passport was confiscated when he was deported from Dubai some years ago.
Iqbal had filed a petition in the Bombay high court last year complaining that his application for fresh passport had been rejected for no reasons. The high court had then asked the ministry of external affairs to give him a hearing and decide the case.
As the ministry rejected his application last month, the high court o Monday said that he was free to file a fresh petition challenging the decision. The present petition was disposed of by the court.
