Sara-Sahara case: Dawood's brother acquitted

A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday acquitted fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar along with a builder and four civic officials in the case related to the unauthorised construction of the Sara-Sahara malls while convicting three other accused.

Those convicted by the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court of Judge Mridula Bhatkar were Tariq Parveen, Abdul Rehman Abdul Gafoor Sheikh alias Rehman Boss and Abdul Sattar Haji Jinabhai Radhanpura alias Sattar Teli.      

Kaskar and Parveen were extradited to India from Dubai in 2003.

Builder Ghulam Nabi Ramzan Tanwar was acquitted along with four officials of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai -- Narendra Ramlochan Rajbhar, Hasmukh Pravinchandra Shah, Kiran Vasant Achrekar and Shirish Madhukar Salvekar.      

It was widely reported that a nexus between the underworld and civic officials had been busted after the case was filed.

The two unauthorised malls were built on land owned by the Central Public Works Department in the prime Crawford Market area of south Mumbai. The land was reserved for a municipal school and the malls were constructed allegedly in connivance with MCGM officials.

The matter came to light four years ago after police intercepted telephonic conversations purportedly between Kaskar and co-accused Shaikh and Radhapura.

The accused were booked for criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation and extortion under the Indian Penal Code and the stringent MCOCA.