PTI

Mumbai, Jun 13: A special court on Wednesday acquitted fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar, along with a builder and four civic officials, in a case related to the unauthorized construction of the Sara-Sahara malls. Three others have been convicted.

Those convicted by the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) court of Judge Mridula Bhatkar were Tariq Parveen, Abdul Rehman Abdul Gafoor Sheikh alias Rehman Boss and Abdul Sattar Haji Jinabhai Radhanpura alias Sattar Teli. Kaskar and Parveen were extradited to India from Dubai in 2003.

Builder Ghulam Nabi Ramzan Tanwar was acquitted along with four officials of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai -- Narendra Ramlochan Rajbhar, Hasmukh Pravinchandra Shah, Kiran Vasant Achrekar and Shirish Madhukar Salvekar.

It was widely reported that a nexus between the underworld and civic officials had been busted after the case was filed.

The two unauthorized malls were built on land owned by the Central Public Works Department in the prime Crawford Market area of south Mumbai. The land was reserved for a municipal school and the malls were constructed allegedly in connivance with MCGM officials.

The matter came to light four years ago after police intercepted telephonic conversations purportedly between Kaskar and co-accused Shaikh and Radhapura.

The accused were booked for criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation and extortion under the IPC and the stringent MCOCA.