File photo of Nawab Malik (right) with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar
By Venkatesh Raghavan
Mumbai: Nawab Malik, a popular political figure in Mumbai’s Kurla area is known in political circles for establishing good rapport within his home constituency besides taking up issues that affected members of the minority community.
His arrest, a few months after that of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh has created apprehensions in the state political circles that there may be more arrests in the coming months, in the event any of them dare ruffle the feathers of the ruling central dispensation.
Malik, the second cabinet minister from Maharashtra under the scanner of the nodal Enforcement Directorate (ED) is facing stiff charges of money laundering in connection with the purchase transaction of a real estate property that belonged to a close aide of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar reacted sharply to the development stating, “It’s a standard procedure adopted for over 30 years by political parties to use or link your name with Dawood Ibrahim on some pretext or the other in order to defame the person’s image.” The NCP is part of the ruling dispensation led by the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
The state cadres including those from NCP and other allies decided to hold a protest march outside Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial near Mantralaya here today afternoon.
Senior NCP cadres view it as an act of vindictiveness on part of the ruling BJP at the Centre owing to Malik being vociferous about Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) western region chief Sameer Wankhede for flouting service rules while in office. This happened soon after Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan was arrested in a narcotics-related case off the shores of Mumbai on a cruise ship by Sameer Wankhede’s NCB officers.
The NCP leaders including Chhagan Bhujbal were of the opinion that the Centre was attempting to stifle all voices of protest by using the nodal agency to intimidate its political opponents. Malik, who was interrogated by the ED for nearly eight hours on Wednesday informed the court that the agency had failed to issue summons and had forcibly brought him to the premises. Malik after emerging from the court informed media persons that he will fight it to the end and expose the truth about the conspiracy to defame him.
The senior BJP state cadres maintained that it was nothing to do with a political vendetta and it had come to light during ED’s investigation into transactions over a land deal that the said minister had purchased real estate from a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim. “The law will take its course as the matter is now in the courts,” they sounded.
The investigations on the land deal commenced with the ED conducting raids on 10 locations in mid-February this year, related to properties that were linked to Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar. In the course of the investigations, Nawab Malik’s name popped up, stating he had purchased the property from the syndicate.
Interestingly, Malik is the second Maharashtra cabinet minister to be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate. Early last November, former state Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh had been arrested in an extortion related case by the ED. The special court that attended the ED’s remand application has granted custody of Malik till March 3. The ED team escorted Malik to the JJ hospital for carrying out a medical check-up yesterday evening.
