Mumbai: A local court on March 3 modified its order to remand Iqbal Shaikh Kaskar, younger brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, to police custody till March 6, and deferred until tomorrow his plea to meet lawyers within the sight of police but outside the hearing limits.

On a plea by crime branch sleuths, Magistrate S S Shirke had earlier remanded the accused to police custody till March 14. The court modified its order to bring down the remand period to March 6 after police admitted its lapse of seeking police custody beyond 14 days of his arrest.

Iqbal was arrested on February 20 for murder of a customs informer. He was arrested at airport on arrival from Dubai after being deported by authorities. He was remanded to police custody by a Magistrate till March 6 and probe entrusted to M R A Marg police station which registered the crime in 1998.

Crime branch stepped into the case a week after Iqbal's arrest and took over investigations. They produced him before another magistrate who remanded him to custody till March 14.

Iqbal's lawyers Ayaz Khan and Sham Keswani argued that the police custody could be granted only for the first 15 days and not beyond this period. The court thereupon gave notice to crime branch to explain on March 3 why they needed his police custody beyond 15 days.

Iqbal's lawyers also moved an application urging for a direction to allow the accused legal interviews within the sight of police but outside hearing limits. They said earlier three meetings of Iqbal with lawyers were within the sight and hearing of police.

PTI