MCOCA Court Grants Bail To Salim Penwala In 2011 Extortion Case Citing Lack Of Direct Evidence

Mumbai: A special MCOCA court has granted bail to Salim Penwala alias Salim Dadhi, alleged member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang and an associate of gangster Ejaz Lakdawala, booked in a 2011 extortion case registered by the JJ Marg police. The court gave relief, noting the lack of coherence in the prosecution reply; according to which, Dadhi came in Lakdawala's contact eight years after the crime.

While the case was registered in 2011, Dadhi was arrested in October 2020, after Lakdawala was caught for another offence in January 2020. During the interrogation, the latter apparently spilled the beans on him, revealing that they had extorted Rs50 lakh from a businessman in 2011.

Lakdawala had claimed that he gave Rs25 lakhs to Dadhi. However, he later retracted the statement, claiming that it was extracted out of him by threatening to implicate his daughter.

As per the prosecution, the police had previously arrested five accused in the extortion case. They had opened fire at the businessman, however, he survived and paid the protection money, it added. Referring to the prosecution reply, the court noted, “If according to the prosecution, the applicant came in contact with the gangster in 2019, it is axiomatic that, before the alleged offences, that is before October 1, 2011, the applicant and Lakdawala were certainly not in contact.”

The court said that apart from Lakdawala's retracted statement, there is nothing on record against Dadhi. So far, the prosecution has examined 36 witnesses, but none of them have said anything against Dadhi, the judge pointed out. “It is not even the case of the complainant that the applicant ever threatened anyone and gained anything. Even the connection between the accused and Lakdawala at the time of the offences is not even remotely established,” the court ruled.