ED takes custody of Dawood Ibrahim's jailed brother Iqbal Kaskar in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested Iqbal Kaskar, the jailed brother of 1993 Mumbai blasts mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, as part of a probe into a recently registered money laundering case against him, officials said.

Kaskar, already lodged in Thane jail in connection with multiple cases of alleged extortion, was taken into custody in the fresh case. He will be produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court that had issued a production warrant against him on February 16, the officials said.

The federal probe agency is expected to seek his custody for questioning in the newly registered case against him, fugitive gangster Ibrahim and others linked to the Mumbai underworld.

The ED's move comes following the registration of the new case and its February 15 raids in Mumbai into the operations of the underworld, linked alleged illegal property deals and hawala transactions.

The searches were conducted at 10 locations, including premises linked to Ibrahim's late sister Haseena Parkar, Kaskar and Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit, a brother-in-law of gangster Chhota Shakeel. Qureshi was also questioned by the ED after the raids.

The ED case is based on an FIR filed recently by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Ibrahim and others apart from its independent intelligence. The NIA had filed its criminal complaint under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The agency is understood to have recovered documents related to these alleged illegal property deals with links to Indian businessmen operating here and in Dubai during the course of the investigation and also after the raids.

Some political links to these alleged shady deals are also under the scanner of the agency. 

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