The police custody of Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar and his two associates has been extended till 14 October.
The three were arrested in an extortion case by the Thane Anti-Extortion Cell headed by former 'encounter specialist' Pradeep Sharma on 18 September 2017.
According to ANI, five people, including Chhota Shakeel are wanted in the Kaskar extortion case.
Police accused them of threatening a prominent realtor of Thane since 2013 and extorting Rs 30 lakh and four flats in a posh area from him.
On 19 September, the three were remanded to police custody for eight days which was later extended till 1 October.
On 26 September, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it had started an investigation against Kaskar and three others for extortion and illegal transfer of property under the prevention of money laundering act.
Public prosecutor Rashmi Kshirsagar on Wednesday sought the extension of the police custody of Kaskar, Israr Jamil Sayyed, and Mumtaz Ejaz Shaikh when they were presented in the court at the end of their eight-day remand.
Kshirsagar said investigation into the extortion case was not yet completed and the police wanted to trace at least two hitmen who were brought to Mumbai to threaten builders so as to extort money from them.
Besides, the investigators wanted to get more details on four flats allegedly grabbed by Kaskar and his associates from a builder and were awaiting documents from a government office.
Kaskar's counsel Shyam Keswani, on the other hand, argued that the details of the ongoing investigation were coming out first in the media and most of them were 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 the Hindi film Haseena Parkar, bore no relevance to the present case.
Keswani also questioned how the investigation was taking so long.
The arrest of Kaskar came after a complaint by a city businessman in which he alleged that he had been getting extortion calls from some mafia gangsters owing allegiance to Kaskar.
Whether Dawood was directly involved in the extortion racket or not will need to be probed, Thane commissioner of police (CP) Parambir Singh had said on 19 September.
Whether Dawood Ibrahim had an indirect or direct involvement in this extortion racket will be probed... Some politicians, including corporators, could be involved. We are investigating. Threats were given in the name of Dawood. Sometimes shooters were brought from outside, some brought from Bihar to forcibly evacuate properties.Thane CP Parambir Singh
Regarding the racket, the Times of India had earlier quoted a source as saying:
Besides the complaint, there are conversations where Kaskar and his accomplice are heard threatening builders and demanding money.
In February last year, Kaskar was arrested in connection with another extortion case, but was subsequently granted bail.
Before that, he was named in a murder case and in the Sara Sahara illegal building construction case. He was let off in both cases in 2007.
(This story has been updated. With inputs from ANI and IANS)
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