Verdict in Sara and Sahara case likely on Monday

MUMBAI: A special court is likely to deliver on Monday the judgement in the case related to unauthorised construction of twin-shopping malls Sara and Sahara here in which fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar is one of the nine accused.

Special Judge Mridula Bhatkar of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court, who has been hearing the case, began dictating the judgement on June 1.

The Bombay High Court had set June 11 deadline for the much-awaited judgement in the case that had exposed alleged links between civic body officials and underworld elements. 

The unauthorised twin shopping malls at Crawford Market in South Mumbai were constructed on Public Works Department land reserved for a municipal school in connivance with Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) officials.

The matter came to light four years ago when the police intercepted telephone conversations purportedly between Kaskar and co-accused Abdul Rehman Shaikh and Abdul Sattar Radhapura alias Sattar Teli. Kaskar was arrested under MCOCA after being extradited from Dubai in 2003.

All the accused - Kaskar, Shaikh, Sattar Teli, Narendra Rajbhar, Gulam Nabi Tanwar, Hasmukh Shah, Kiran Achrekar, Shirish Salvekar and Tariq Parveen are charged under various sections of the MCOCA for conspiracy, criminal intimidation, extortion, aiding and abetting organised crime syndicate.

Of the accused Rajbhar, Shah, Archrekar and Salvekar are municipal corporation officials.