Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik was arrested on Wednesday after questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to the activities of Mumbai’s underworld fugitive mobster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides. Footage from outside the ED office shows Mr Malik waving his fist in the air defiantly.
According to sources, Mr Malik was offended over alleged dealings with mobster Dawood’s associates and land deals with them. He was evasive and did not cooperate with the investigation, the ED said.
Recently, the ED had conducted several raids and, in the same case, also arrested Dawood Ibrahim’s brother, Iqbal Kaskar. According to sources, some evidence has surfaced during the ongoing investigation regarding real estate purchased by Nawab Malik.
Amid an escalating battle of words between the Maha Vikas Agadhi government of Maharashtra and the Center, the 62-year-old minister was taken to the Office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning this morning.
The officials of the central investigation bureau reached the home of the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at 6:00 am, where he was interrogated for an hour. He was then taken to the ED office and questioned again for over five hours.
While Malik was being questioned, NCP workers protested near the party’s headquarters, close to the ED office in south Mumbai, shouting slogans against the BJP-led central government and the investigative agency.
The workers were on their way to the ED’s office, but were stopped by police personnel near the party’s office. They then did a sit-in protest.
“The protest is against the unfair interrogation of Nawab Malik when he exposed the BJP+NCB+CBI+ED nexus on a daily basis. We will not be deterred. The NCP will continue to expose the BJP and all central authorities,” it said. party spokesman Sanjay. said Tatkare.
Malik had recently made headlines for assaulting Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who accused him of several service-related misdeeds after the anti-drug officer raided a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai last October. years and arrested 20. people including the son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Aryan Khan.
Malik’s son-in-law, Sameer Khan, was also arrested last year in a drug case by the NCB’s Mumbai unit.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and NCP chief Sharad Pawar have accused the central authorities of being politically motivated, claiming that anyone speaking out against the Center and its investigative agencies is being targeted.
The BJP has dismissed allegations of political vendetta, accusing Malik of buying land from gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s aide. BJP MLA of Ghatkopar West Ram Kadam in Mumbai said in a video statement that it is not about a party or a person.
Maharashtra’s government minister bought land from Dawood’s feared mobster, he claimed, adding that as the land was on the brink of confiscation by the government, the minister bought it at nominal prices from an accused bombing attack.
“Once all the documents are out and the ED acts on them, the Maharashtra government and its minister will say the action is revenge. Dawood has brutally killed thousands in bomb attacks… the gang member from whom the land was bought is being accused in the blast… can a nationalist buy his property?” he said.
