New Delhi [India], September 25 : The Supreme Court on Friday sought the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) response on a bail plea filed by a man accused of assisting the alleged Dawood Ibrahim gang in extortion and hawala transactions.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice on the plea of Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh, who has challenged the Bombay High Court’s refusal to grant him bail.
The NIA was granted four weeks to file its response. 
Shaikh’s bail plea was earlier rejected by the special NIA court in December 2024 and by the Bombay High Court on April 15, 2026.
Shaikh’s counsel submitted that his client had been in custody since May 2022, while charges were yet to be framed in the case involving an 8,000-page chargesheet and 137 witnesses.
The NIA alleged that Shaikh acted at the behest of Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel and helped extort Rs 16 crore from a protected witness between 2008 and 2018. 
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the NIA, opposed the plea, submitting that Shaikh was a member of the Dawood gang.