Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik was today arrested after questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case linked to the activities of the Mumbai underworld, fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.
The 62-year-old Minister was taken to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office this morning for questioning. ED officials reached this home at 6 am where he was questioned for an hour. He was then brought to the ED office and questioned again for close to eight hours
Defiantly waving his fist in the air to the waiting media persons, Malik said he won’t bow down. “We will fight and win, and expose everyone,” he said as he stepped out of the probe agency’s office. He was then taken by ED officials in a vehicle for a medical check-up.
According to sources, Malik was grilled over alleged transactions with gangster Dawood’s associates and land deals with them. He was evasive and didn’t cooperate with the investigation, the ED said. On February 15, the ED had carried out raids at 10 locations including premises linked to Dawood Ibrahim’s late sister Haseena Parkar, brother Iqbal Kaskar and Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit, brother-in-law of gangster Chhota Shakeel. The agency also took custody of Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar in the same case. According to sources, some evidence related to property purchased by Malik has surfaced during the ongoing investigation.
Malik was being questioned, NCP workers protested near the party’s headquarters, located close to the ED office in south Mumbai, and shouted slogans slamming the BJP-led central government and the probe agency. “The protest is against the unjust questioning of Nawab Malik as he was exposing the BJP+NCB+CBI+ED nexus on a daily basis. We will not be cowed down. NCP will keep exposing BJP and all central agencies,” party spokesperson Sanjay Tatkare said. Malik had recently made headlines for attacking the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede accusing him of several service-related wrongdoings after the anti-drugs officer led the raid on a cruise ship on Mumbai’s shore in October last year and arrested 20 people including superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan.Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was also arrested in a drugs case by the NCB’s Mumbai unit last year.
Reacting to the allegations against Mr Malik, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said invoking Dawood was a convenient way to sully someone’s reputation. “I don’t know about the case against him but Dawood’s name has always been invoked to try to defame rivals,” he said. Mr Pawar claimed that he was also accused of having ties with the underworld when he was the state’s Chief Minister. “25 years later, the same trick is being used to harass and defame,” he added.
