Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik held under PMLA

New Delhi, February 23

The Enforcement Directorate today arrested Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case of alleged illegal underworld deals linked to fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim.

Sources said Malik was arrested by the ED following hours of questioning at its Mumbai office. Soon after his arrest, Malik was taken for medical examination. He was later produced in a special PMLA court, which remanded him in ED custody till March 3. Malik’s property deals allegedly linked to the underworld are under the ED’s radar. According to reports from Mumbai, while the Minister for Minority Development was being taken for medical examination, he told the media: “We will fight and we will win. Will expose all.”

Property deals under scanner

• Nawab Malik’s property deals allegedly linked to Dawood Ibrahim under ED’s radar
• The arrest comes after ED raids on Feb 15 in Mumbai to probe hawala transactions

It is learnt that the 62-year-old NCP leader arrived at the ED’s office around 8 am and the agency recorded his statement. Since he evaded a number of posers, the investigators arrested him, the sources said. Shiv Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut, meanwhile, said:

“Old issues are being dug out, but they should remember that after 2024 they too will be probed.” Malik was in the news for the last few months as he levelled personal and service-related allegations of wrongdoing against former Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau zonal director Sameer Wankhede.

These charges came soon after the NCB conducted raids on a cruise liner in October last year, arresting 20 persons, including actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan. Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was also arrested in a drugs case by the NCB last year. This ED action comes after the registration of a new case and raids conducted by it on February 15 in Mumbai in connection with the deals of Dawood Ibrahim’s aides which are linked to illegal property and hawala transactions.

The searches were conducted at 10 locations, including premises linked to 1993 Mumbai blasts mastermind Dawood Ibrahim’s late sister Haseena Parkar, brother Iqbal Kaskar and Salim Qureshi, alias Salim Fruit, brother-in-law of gangster Chhota Shakeel.