The Enforcement Directorate is investigating money laundering linked to the underworld and has recently carried out multiple raids besides filing cases against the underworld. Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood Ibrahim’s brother, was arrested in the case last week. Some evidence showed transactions between Nawab Malik and associates of Dawood Ibrahim, said Enforcement Directorate sources.
After Anil Deshmukh now it’s Nawab Malik, the second Maharashtra Minister to be arrested by a central probe agency in four months. The agency first searched Nawab Malik briefly before taking him to its south Mumbai office. The minister was arrested after five hours of questioning.
Reacting to the Enforcement Directorate’s move, Sharad Pawar said, “Which case have they dug up? It is simple. They take the name of Dawood, especially if there is a Muslim activist (against whom a case is dug up) … There is no relation (between the activist concerned and underworld), but it is done.”
“He gave oblique replies and did not cooperate with us,” said an official.
Sources also said Nawab Malik was brutally grilled over alleged transactions with Dawood Ibrahim’s associates and land deals. Some evidence related to the property bought by Nawab Malik surfaced during the investigation, officials said.
Nawab Malik, a five-time MLA, is the national spokesperson of Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is a part of Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena-led government. He is the minister in charge of minority affairs. He is among the most vocal critics of the BJP and in recent months, became the face of the opposition’s allegations at the Centre over the drugs arrest of megastar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan by the Narcotics Control Bureau.
Last week, the Enforcement Directorate had conducted raids at the home of Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar in Mumbai in the money laundering case. The agency had also questioned Dawood’s nephew and Parkar’s son Alishah Parkar and Chota Shakeel’s henchman, Salim Qureshi, also Salim Fruits
Boldly 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.
