Mumbai, Jun 22 (IANS): A terror-funding accused Arif Abubakar Sheikh alias Arif Bhaijaan, died during treatment following a cardiac arrest at a government hospital, here on Saturday, a lawyer said.

Adv. M.B. Shaikh said that the accused Sheikh -- the brother-in-law of fugitive gangster Chhota Shakeel -- had been rushed to the Sir J J Hospital late Friday night following breathlessness and related problems where he succumbed during treatment.

A relative claimed at the hospital that Sheikh, 63, who was lodged at the Arthur Road Central Jail, was hale and hearty with no known health problems, but the jail and hospital authorities were not revealing anything about his condition.

After completing the necessary formalities, Sheikh's body was handed over to his relatives for the last rites this afternoon.

Sheikh and his brother Shabbir were nabbed by the National Investigation Agency in May 2023 in connection with a terror-funding case filed in February 2022 against the absconder mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, Chhota Shakeel and others.

They were accused of arms smuggling, narco-terror, money laundering, printing and circulating fake currencies, and acquiring assets with ill-gotten wealth, among other offences.

The duo was also charged with harbouring terror links with global outfits like Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and others.

Besides the Sheikh brothers, another associate Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit was arrested in August 2023 on suspicion that he had grabbed Dawood’s mafia empire after the death of the latter’s sister Haseena (Kaskar) Parker.