Younger brother of underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim, Iqbal Hassan Ibrahim Shaikh, and two others were on Thursday booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act in a case of alleged extortion and land grabbing.

They were remanded to police custody till March 21 by a special court in Mumbai.

Designated Judge A P Bhangale allowed the accused to have home food and essential items in jail. He also permitted them interviews with lawyers and meet relatives.

Others arrested with Iqbal are Abdul Rehman Abdul Gafoor Shaikh alias Rehman Boss and Abdul Sattar Haji Hiva Radhanpur alias Sattar Teli.

The trio face charges of forcibly evicting a women from her hut which obstructed the entrance of a shopping centre allegedly owned by Dawood Ibrahim and his associate Chhota Shakeel in south Mumbai.

They were arrested on March 6 in this case and had been charged with offences under the Indian Penal Code.

Prosecutor Rohini Salian said Iqbal and others were involved in many cases of land grabbing that this case was just the tip of the iceberg. She said the trio had underworld links and police had documents to prove this.

Iqbal's lawyer Sham Keswani contested the police claim and said no case had been made out for arresting them under MCOCA.

Police alleged that Iqbal had indulged in land grabbing in the city through his henchmen for the benefit of the organised crime syndicate of his brother Dawood Ibrahim.

They said interrogations revealed Iqbal and his associates had acquired landed property in Mumbai by extortion and unlawful means.

The duo had acted on instructions from Iqbal and had lured Nafisa with Rs 700,000 to vacate the hut, but she refused saying her husband was a heart patient. Then they forcibly took away her ration card and evicted her, the police alleged.

Waris Pathan and Yayha Sahani, lawyers defending Abdul Rehman and Abdul Sattar, argued that no case had been made out against their clients. They denied that the accused had any underworld links.

Iqbal was arrested on February 20 for murder of a customs informer. He was arrested at airport on arrival from Dubai after being deported by authorities.