Mumbai Crime Branch arrests gangster Ejaz Lakdawala's associate

Ejaz Lakdawala

Mumbai police made a fresh arrest in Ejaz Lakdawala case on Monday evening. The accused Salim Maharaj was arrested by the crime branch for sending details to Lakdawala of builders who could be targeted for extortion. Anti Extortion Cell arrested Salim Maharaj from Dongri. Salim acts like as a mediator in property dispute matters.

Salim Maharaj worked closely with Ejaz Lakdawala in the extortion business. He used to provide information on the possible targets.

According to the Crime Branch, more arrests have to be made in Ejaz Lakdawala case. Salim Maharaj is a gold smuggler. He was arrested by Mumbai Pydhoni police in gold smuggling in the year 2018. A source from the crime branch said that he claims that he is very close to Senior police officer.

After 20 days of arresting gangster Ejaz Lakdawala, Mumbai police crime branch is all set to arrest rest of the accused those who like Salim Maharaj used to shortlist targets for Lakdawala. The crime branch has circled on those people who used to study the builders for Lakdawala, who used to research about the current and upcoming projects of those builders and shortlist the names of builders who could be targeted for extortion and then provided the numbers of these builders to Lakdawala. Based on the homework done by his men, Lakdawala used to make extortion call to the builders.

A senior police officer told mid-day, "These men are under our scanner. Very soon we will make remaining arrests. Such people are not only the support system of these gangsters who are operating from outside India but actually they are the backbone of such crime syndicates. That's why their arrest is crucial."

Today in the court

Ejaz Lakdawala was produced at Killa Court in Mumbai today where the court sent him to judicial custody till 10 February, soon after which the Anti Extortion Cell arrested Lakdawala in the third case. In this case, Lakdawala will be produced for remand in court tomorrow.

Senior Police Inspector of Anti Extortion Cell Ajay Sawant told the court during Lakdawala's appearance that Lakdawala, who had threatened a builder for extortion in November and threatened to kill him for not giving money, and in this case, we are arresting Lakdawala.

The third case in which Lakdawala has been arrested is that of a builder from Byculla who was threatened by Lakdawala by phone in November 2019. Byculla's builder had made a written complaint to the police on the threat, on which the Anti Extortion Cell registered a case against Lakdawala and arrested him today.

Today, the bail plea of Ejaz Lakdawala's daughter Shifa Shahid Sheikh was also heard in Killa Court. During the hearing, Shifa's lawyer Devnand Manekar told the court that Shifa's father is now in police custody, in which case Shifa can be granted bail. Advocate Manekar told the court that if the court grants bail to Shifa, then Shifa will remain in the city and will not go out. Will follow the court order. Shifa has not committed any crime in which he can be sentenced to life imprisonment or rigorous punishment. But the court rejected Shifa's bail application.

Anti Extortion Cell arrested Ejaz Lakdawala daughter's Sifa from Mumbai Airport on 28 December 2019 in a fake passport case. In fake passport case Shifa has already got bail from killa court but in the second case of extortion, court rejected Shifa's bail application on Monday.

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