MCOCA case against five accused of Dawood links and extortion falls flat in special court

Time of India

11-08-2025

Mumbai: In a setback to the crime branch, a special MCOCA court has acquitted four accused and discharged Danish Ahmed — an alleged close associate of
's nephew, Sohail Kaskar — citing serious procedural lapses, defective prosecution sanction, and lack of evidence.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The case drew attention because of Ahmed's alleged links to Sohail, son of Dawood's late brother Noora Kaskar, who died in 2010 in Karachi of kidney failure.
Last week, special judge Mahesh K Jadhav of the MCOCA court acquitted five alleged members of a syndicate said to be run by Dawood's brother, Anees Ibrahim. The accused — Ramdas Rahane, Harish Gyanchandani, Danish Ahmed, Aziz "Azzu Rolex" Unni, and Mohammed Altaf — were charged with threatening a Malad-based hotelier to extort Rs 50 lakh between July 2017 and June 2018.
The prosecution claimed the complainant, who had business interests in Dubai, received calls and WhatsApp messages from international numbers, one allegedly operated by wanted accused Nasir Khan in Pakistan.
While discharging Ahmed, who had been made approver, the court said the prosecution had not submitted a certificate saying he had not made any full and true disclosure of the whole circumstances within his knowledge relative to the offence.
The Anti-Extortion Cell had invoked MCOCA provisions on the grounds that two accused had prior charge-sheets and there were pecuniary gains, which, it argued, satisfied the statutory requirements. It alleged the group was part of Anees Ibrahim's organised crime syndicate engaged in extortion and gold smuggling.
The court ruled that the prosecution had "utterly failed" to establish active membership of the syndicate or any continuous criminal activity.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
It pulled up the police for procedural violations, holding that the sanction under MCOCA was invalid as it was granted solely on a police report without application of mind. Prosecution witness and the then police commissioner Subodh Kumar Jaiswal did not testify to examining the relevant earlier charge-sheets, and these documents were never tendered in evidence.
The prior approval granted by the then joint commissioner (Crime) Ashutosh Dumbre was found defective, as cognisance against the alleged gang leader had not been taken by a competent court.
The prosecution had also withheld two earlier complaints — one filed at Malad police station and another with the commissioner — without explanation.
The court order stated: "The prosecution has failed to prove that the accused are active members of the organised crime syndicate run by wanted accused Anees Ibrahim. The statement of the approver is not corroborated by prosecution witnesses. The electronic evidence, CDR, voice clips are not admissible for want of connection with the accused and for want of certificate under Section 65B."
It noted that the alleged recovery of a pistol and cartridges from Ramdas Rahane was unproven, while two contradictory confessions — one by Ahmed, another by Altaf — undermined each other. Altaf's confession was ruled inadmissible. Voice identification was not proved, and no evidence linked the weapon to the offence, the court said.
The court also found discrepancies in the timing of Altaf's production before two different courts, casting further doubt on the prosecution's narrative. Ultimately, it held there was no proof the accused were syndicate members, engaged in continuous crime, or involved in extortion or smuggling.