Dawood Ibrahim intends to return to India with preconditions: Lawyer

Fugitive mafia don Dawood Ibrahim has stated his intent to come to India with certain preconditions.

His brother Iqbal Kaskar’s lawyer Shyam Keswani told a Mumbai court on Tuesday that Dawood Ibrahim had offered to return to India.

Sharing his conditions, the renowned criminal lawyer said that Dawood had asked to be lodged only in the high-secure precincts of Arthur Road Central Jail (ARCJ) in Mumbai during the trial period.

Stating that the preconditions laid down by Dawood are not acceptable to the Indian government, he said that the conditional return was not accepted earlier also which is why Dawood has not been arrested to this day.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray had made similar claims on Dawood's desire to return six months back

The Court sent Iqbal Kaskar to police custody till Friday in a land-grab and extortion case and Shyam Keswani is representing Kaskar for extension of his custody.

The case involves the alleged extortion of Rs 3 crore from a builder in a deal for a land worth crores of rupees in a coastal village of south-west Thane, Gorai.

Lawyer Keswani opposed the police custody of Kaskar who is currently in judicial custody for other cases and said that his client has been in police and judicial custody in Thane since his arrest on September 19 from Mumbai when the crime was committed.

During the court proceedings, the chief judicial magistrate questioned Kaskar regarding the whereabouts of his other family members and to share the information with the police if so. However, Kaskar responded with a ‘No’.

Later, he was questioned whether he had any contact with Dawood in recent times to which Kaskar replied that he was not aware of his brother’s location. He did share that they spoke on the phone but Dawood’s number was never displayed, so he was not aware of his whereabouts.

Kaskar’s counsel Keswani then told the Court regarding Dawood’s wish to return to India.