Spoke to Dawood after Bhendi Bazar bldg collapse: Kaskar

Fugitive Don Recently Made Four Calls, Claims Brother

Investigators probing the extortion ring run by Iqbal Kaskar have revealed that he spoke to his fugitive gangster brother Dawood Ibrahim four times in the recent past, using ‘burner phones’ to avoid leaving any traces for intelligence agencies.

It is also learnt that the last conversation between the two was reportedly after the dilapidated Husaini Building collapsed next to Kaskar’s house in Bhendi Bazaar. However, police are yet to verify the claims made by Kaskar.

Investigators grilling Kaskar are understood to have told the sleuths that he spoke to Dawood over phone and that he made the calls using burner phones and SIM boxes. Burner phones are prepaid phones used for a particular purpose, disposed of once that purpose is over. SIM boxes enable a caller to hide their identity and the number they are calling from.

“It is suspected that they used SIM boxes to route calls through Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) which confuses the monitoring, security or intelligence agencies, keeping a tab on underworld elements. All this is again subjected to verification and a thorough probe connecting the dots is underway,” said a senior officer.

Police are also verifying intelligence reports that close relatives of Dawood Ibrahim based in Pakistan travel to and fro to Dubai without stamping their passports to avoid being tracked by intelligence agencies. “Verification of this information is on and it is too premature to say anything about this,” said the senior police officer.

On the other hand, elaborating more on Dawood’s address, a senior officer said that Kaskar has allegedly told them that Dawood as well as Anees and other close family members stay in palatial mansions located behind the Abdul Qazi Dargah in Karachi, near the Clifton area in Karachi, Pakistan.

“He has told us that there are other two-three mansions in the same locality which are used for living by some aides of the D-Gang,” said the senior cop.

Police have also got the relevant documents of the flat where Kaskar’s arrested co-accused Mumtaz was staying and which was extorted from the builder. “Verification is underway and soon other details will come to the fore to make a watertight case,” said a senior officer.

Sources said a few more arrests are likely to be made soon, but police refused to comment on the same. Dawood is not involved in the Thane extortion racket