Man detained for video of him celebrating Dawood’s birthday

PTI, Dec 29, 2019, 10:15 AM IST

Mumbai: A man from Dongri in Mumbai was detained for allegedly threatening a journalist who uploaded the former’s congratulatory birthday video for fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim on social media, police said on Saturday.

Ibrahim, prime accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case believed to be hiding in Pakistan, turned 64 on Thursday, and Dongri-resident Azhar Feroz Maniyar alias Shera Chikna put out a video on Facebook allegedly showing him celebrating the gangster’s birthday, police said.

After local journalist Mohsin Sheikh made the video viral by uploading it on YouTube and forwarding it on WhatsApp groups, he was threatened by Maniyar, said police.

Sheikh filed a case at Goregaon police station on Friday and the Anti Extortion Cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch detained him later in the day, he said.

Maniyar claimed the video was not about the gangster but someone he knew with the same name, an official said.

No FIR has been registered as yet and further probe was underway, said AEC Inspector Ajay Sawant.