Alleged member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, Anil Ramchandra Parab, wanted in several criminal cases, including murder and attempt to murder, was on Monday remanded to police custody till April 29 by a magistrate in Mumbai.
Parab was arrested at the international airport in Mumbai on Sunday night after he was deported from Dubai and put on an Air-India flight on the request of the Government of India.
On a plea by defence lawyer Srikant Bhatt, Metropolitan Magistrate S S Shirke allowed Parab to have home food and medicines in jail.
Forty-year-old Parab alias Vangya was remanded to police custody in a case registered by the Vakola police station in connection with the murder of his wife Neha in 1995.
According to the police, he had gone to Dubai in 1990 and had allegedly plotted his wife's murder from UAE as he was in love with another woman.
Parab's associate Rajan Singh Kapkoti had called Neha to his office to collect 90,000 US dollars sent by her husband from Dubai.
While Neha was talking to Parab on the telephone, Kapkoti and other accused hit her head with a sharp object and killed her. They defaced her, poured kerosene over the body and torched her. The body was dumped in the Kalina area of northeast Mumbai, police said.
Investigating Officer S D Deshpande then informed that there were some cases of murder and attempt to murder but added he could not cite the case numbers and sought time to provide details.
He had also jumped bail in a case of attempt to murder a witness Hansraj Shah in the premises of a court in Andheri, northwest Mumbai, it was told.
Bhatt argued that the case registered by police against Parab was an eyewash and there was no material evidence to nail his client in the crime. Parab was in Dubai when his wife Neha was murdered in Mumbai, he pointed out.
He also sought to know in which other cases Parab was wanted by the Mumbai police.
Police took Parab to a municipal hospital for medical check up before producing him in the court.
Bhatt complained that the accused was arrested on Sunday night but produced in the court only on Monday afternoon after 1400 IST.
He cited a provision in the CrPC, which says that an accused should be produced before a magistrate as early as possible within 24 hours of his arrest.
Parab is the sixth alleged criminal to be deported from the UAE in the recent past. The others are Majnu Mustafa, Ejaz Pathan, Imran Rehman Khan, Iqbal Kaskar and Mohammed Altaf.
Pathan and Mustafa were allegedly involved in the 1993 serial bomb blasts and are facing trial under TADA, while Khan and Altaf are booked under POTA in connection with the Ghatkopar blast case. Iqbal Kaskar is facing charges of extortion and land grabbing.
Police alleged that Parab was an active member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang and was involved in several cases of murder and attempt to murder.
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