ED arrests Nawab Malik in money laundering case

Malik was earlier taken to the office of the Enforcement Directorate where he is being questioned

In a significant development, Maharashtra’s minority affairs minister and NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the activities of Pakistan-based underworld don and the mastermind of 1993 serial blasts Dawood Ibrahim.

Malik (62) is a close aide of NCP founder-president Sharad Pawar and a key strategy member of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Malik had forced the Centre to move NCB’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede and move to DRI in New Delhi in the wake of the controversy involving the arrest of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan in a drugs case.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government has ruled out the resignation of Malik from the Thackeray government.

However, leader of opposition and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said that the issue involves national security and involved a deal with Dawood Ibrahim, who is inimical to India. “This is a serious charge and the minister should immediately resign,” he said, adding that he would unravel more information in the days to come.

Also read: MVA govt comes to Nawab Malik’s defence, accuses Fadnavis of 'trying to topple govt'

“We will fight…we will not bow down…we will win…we will expose them,” said Malik as he came out of the ED office in the Kaiser-e-Hind building at Ballard Estate smiling and waving before being taken to the Sir JJ Hospital in Byculla and later he was produced before a special court in Fort.

Malik was placed under arrest under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after several hours of grilling by a team led by ED’s Assistant Director Niraj Kumar.

A special PMLA court presided over by special judge R N Rokade, remanded him to ED custody till 3 March.

It may be mentioned, last week, the ED arrested Iqbal Kaskar, the Mumbai-based brother of Dawood Ibrahim in connection with money laundering vis-a-vis property deals. The ED case follows the FIR by the NIA in the Dawood Ibrahim money laundering case.

Kaskar generally looks after the interests of his fugitive brother - the most-wanted man by Indian agencies - in Mumbai.

A property deal of Malik and his family with an aide of Dawood Ibrahim - Sardar Shah Wali Khan and late Haseena Parkar's bodyguard Salim Patel is under the scanner of the agency. Haseena Parkar was the sister of Dawood Ibrahim.

Sardar Khan was a trusted man of Tiger Memon, a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim, and had been convicted and sentenced by a special TADA Court to life imprisonment, which had been confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Salim Patel was the frontman, bodyguard, and driver of Hasina Parkar, who carried out the land deals on behalf of her brother.

Fadnavis said that the ED has registered a case based on information about Dawood Ibrahim’s real estate business. “It is a very serious issue. Around nine places were raided…among the information that the ED got was one about the property deals of Nawab Malik,’ he said.

“How can you have property deals with people linked to Dawood Ibrahim. The ED has recorded statements of original property holder, there is a terror angle in the entire case,” he said, adding that it is not a “political issue” but something that involves national security. “The 1993 case was hatched by ISI and involved terror funding,” he said.

The legal team led by señior counsel Amit Desai told the court that the transactions mentioned by ED were before the PMLA came into force.

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