Alleged Dawood aide Jabir Moti to stand trial in UK in July

Jabir Moti, an alleged henchman of wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, will stand trial in his extradition case on money laundering and extortion charges brought by US authorities in July, Westminster Magistrates' Court here said on Friday.

Moti, a.k.a. Jabir Motiwala and Jabir Siddiq, was remanded in further custody to appear for another hearing on March 15, with a three-day trial scheduled between July 1 and 3.

The 52-year-old, referred to in the UK court as a "top lieutenant" of D Company the organised crime and terror network associated with Dawood Ibrahim, appeared before the court via routine procedure of video link from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London on Friday.

Moti, who has since made an application to the court to have his name changed on the case documents to Jabir Siddiq, was arrested by Scotland Yard officers from a London hotel in August 2018 following an FBI investigation dating back to 2005.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the US authorities, had told the court that he is a "senior member" of D Company, a crime syndicate associated with Dawood Ibrahim, a key accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case.

Prosecutor Ben Lloyd told the court at a hearing last year that the summary of the US charges against Moti cover allegations of laundering USD 1.4-million of purported proceeds from narcotics smuggling and "conspiracy to collect credit extensions by extortionate means", amounting to around USD 80,000.

The charges relate to a period between December 2011 and September 2012, which carry a maximum sentence of 25 years behind bars in the US.

"For a fee, D Company uses the power of violence for debt collection and has a reputation of intimidating members of the family of its debtors in India and Pakistan," the prosecution said in its case summary.

Moti's defence lawyers had disputed allegations of him being a key aide of D Company as "obvious nonsense", describing their client as a "man of exemplary character" who is a tax paying, prominent businessman based in Karachi and accredited as a stock broker, with a family stock-broking business dating back to the 1950s in Pakistan.

While Dawood Ibrahim's name has not come up specifically during the UK court proceedings, Westminster Magistrates' Court has been told that D Company is "named after the leader of the company based in Pakistan", associated with trafficking and money laundering through international smuggling routes across South Asia that were also linked to terrorist funding.