An aide of Dawood Ibrahim appeared in a London court on Tuesday morning, following his arrest by the Metropolitan Police’s extradition unit at a hotel here last Friday (17th). Jabir Motiwala, or Jabir Siddiq, is said to be an aide of Ibrahim, the key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts that killed 257 people and injured over 700.
Motiwala was arrested in the Paddington area of central London and is due to appear at the Westminster Magistrate’s Court. He was arrested in relation to an allegation of “conspiracy to commit blackmail, import class A drugs and money laundering in the U.S.A,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Monday.
A warrant had been issued by the Westminster Magistrate’s Court, where he appeared later on Friday, and is due to appear again on Tuesday, the police said.
Earlier this year, Yasin Mansoor Mohammed Farooq, aka Farooq Takla, 58, also an aide of Ibrahim, was extradited to India by the UAE.
In early August, a Thai court ordered the extradition of an aide of Ibrahim’s former associate Chhota Shakeel, according to press reports. India believes Ibrahim to be in Pakistan. The U.K’s consolidated list of financial sanctions’ targets updated earlier this month, lists three addresses for Ibrahim (who has 21 aliases according to the same list) in Karachi, including one described as a “palatial bungalow.”
He first appeared on the list in 2003 and was reportedly in the UK on a 10-year visa,
Meanwhile, Ibrahim remains on the UK government's recently-updated financial sanctions list.
Financial sanctions in force in the UK could apply to individuals, entities and governments who may be resident in the UK or abroad. The measures include prohibiting the transfer of funds to a sanctioned country and freezing the assets of a government, the corporate entities and residents of the target country to targeted asset freezes on individuals or entities.
The UK Treasury department's 'Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets in the UK', updated on August 16, records Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar as the only "Indian" on its annually updated asset freeze list.
