Mumbai: The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Mumbai crime branch on Monday arrested five accused, including underworld gangster Chhota Shakeel’s brother in-law Mohammad Salim Iqbal Qureshi alias Salim Fruit for allegedly usurping a South Mumbai property worth ₹25 crore.
Police officers said that the Umarkhadi property belonged to a South Africa-based businessman, Ahmed Lambath, who stated in his FIR that his relatives had sold the building to Salim Fruit by forging his father’s signatures five years after his death. The complainant said that his father died in 2006, so he could not have signed the property documents in 2011.
Salim Fruit was in Taloja Jail in a previous cheating case, and the AEC took his custody on Monday from the jail. He and his accomplices were produced in court on Monday evening and have been remanded to police custody till November 30.
The case was registered in September this year by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against 10 persons, including Salim Fruit and his wife. It was later transferred to the AEC for further investigation.
“The fraud came to light when Lambath’s sister, Salima, came to India in 2016,” said an AEC official. “When she went to the building to collect maintenance dues, she learnt that the building had been sold by her father in 2011. Ahmed Lambath then came to India and got hold of documents from government offices which showed that his father had sold the building to Aslam Patani and Salim Fruit and his wife. The father’s signatures were found to be forged.”
Previous cases against Salim Fruit
Salim Fruit was arrested by the National Investigation Agency after the agency registered an FIR against Dawood and his associates under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act this year.
On August 8, 2022, the Dadar police registered a case based on a complaint lodged by Mohammed Rafique Ibrahim Tambe against his nephews and Salim Fruit for allegedly submitting forged documents to avoid paying full stamp duty on a purchased property. The case was transferred to the AEC.
On, September 27 this year, an extortion case was registered in Versova Police Station against Salim Fruit and Riyaz Bhati for allegedly extorting a sum of ₹7.5 lakh and also forcibly taking away a Range Rover worth around ₹30 lakh from a city businessman. The case was transferred to the AEC and the agency arrested Salim, Riyaz Bhati, Arif Bhajaan and four others D gang members in the case.
In the first week of October 2022, the AEC invoked MCOCA against Salim Fruit, Riyaz Bhati, Arif Bhaijaan and four others in the extortion case.