Iqbal Kaskar asks HC to expedite hearing of state appeal against acquittal

Mumbai: Iqbal Kaskar, the younger brother of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, has urged the Bombay High Court to expedite Maharashtra government’s appeal against his acquittal in a case of illegal construction of shopping malls in the city. Kaskar has pleaded that his appeal to be heard expeditiously as it was more than five years since it was admitted by the High Court. The matter has been pending since then and it would be in fitness of things if this is heard expeditiously, he said. He also contended that he was not being issued a passport in view of the pendency of appeal filed by the state government against his acquittal in the case. [caption id=“attachment_493980” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kaskar was acquitted in the Sara-Sahara case. AFP[/caption] Kaskar’s application will come up for hearing tomorrow before Justices VM Kanade and PD Kode. In September 2007, the Bombay High Court had admitted the appeal against Kaskar and five others. The court had also ordered that its hearing be expedited but so far no progress has been made in this regard, according to Kaskar’s lawyer Shyam Keswani. Kaskar was tried under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for entering into a criminal conspiracy to construct shopping malls called ‘Sara-Sahara’, on a government-owned land, at the instance of his brother and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The MCOCA court had acquitted Kaskar, builder Ghulam Nabi Tanwar and four officials of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, namely Kiran Achrekar, Narendra Rajbhar, Hasmukh Shah and Shirish Salvekar. However, three others - Tariq Parveen, Abdul Rehman Abdul Gafoor Shaikh and Abdul Sattar Haji Jinabhai Radhanpura - were convicted. They were charged with pressurising the occupants to vacate the premises for building shopping malls illegally. PTI