A sessions court in Mumbai on Thursday discharged Iqbal Kaskar, younger brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, in a case pertaining to the murder of a customs informant for want of evidence.

Ravindra Singh was gunned down in 1999 and police had arrested six persons in connection with the murder while declaring eight more, including Iqbal, as absconding.

Of the arrested accused, four were discharged for want of evidence. One died in an encounter while one is in judicial custody.

Kaskar was arrested in February this 2003 after he was deported from Dubai. Statements of four witnesses recorded earlier were re-recorded by the police wherein one of them said that an absconding accused had made an extra judicial confession about Kaskar's involvement in Singh's murder.

The witness had submitted that Singh was murdered for informing police about the involvement of Dawood Ibrahim's brothers Noora and Iqbal in criminal activities.

Kaskar's lawyer Rajendra Shirodkar pointed out that the witness who had talked about the extra judicial confession had been killed in a police encounter. Hence, his version could not be taken into account.

Sessions Judge U R Patil agreed and discharged Kaskar. However, Kaskar will continue to be behind bars in connection with a land grabbing case and is facing charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).