
Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik was on Wednesday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and produced before a special court in connection with a money laundering case linked to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, his aides and the Mumbai underworld.
Here are 10 things about the case you need to know:
* The Enforcement Directorate has sought 14-day custody of Nawab Malik in connection with its money laundering case against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.
* The ED is looking into a Kurla property deal of Malik, among others. It is probing a Rs 80 lakh payment by Nawab Malik to Haseena Parkar, sister of Dawood Ibrahim, to acquire a 3-acre land in Kurla.
* Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis had in November alleged that Malik had struck a property deal with 1993 Mumbai bomb blast convict Sardar Shahwali Khan and Mohd Salim Ishaq Patel, who was the frontman of Haseena Parkar.
* A prime property of 2.80 acre on L B S Marg in Kurla was bought by Solidus Investment Private Limited for a meagre Rs 30 lakh. The signatory on the deal was Faraz Malik, the son of Nawab Malik,” Fadnavis had alleged.
* Malik has denied the charges, saying he had never entered into any deal with anyone from the underworld. Malik said the Kurla land in question held a godown that Solidus had leased from one Munira Patel.
* On Fadnavis’s claims regarding Shahawali Khan, Malik said: “Khan’s father was a watchman at this compound and the family had managed to get their names on the property records, staking claim on 300 metres of land. When we came to know about it, we paid them money to surrender their rights.”
*The NCP has hit out at the BJP, terming Malik’s questioning and arrest as another instance of “misuse of power” and a “pressure tactic to silence political opponents.”
* Last week, the ED had searched 10 premises in Mumbai, including residences of Iqbal Kaskar, brother of Dawood Ibrahim, Salim Fruit, brother-in-law of Chhota Shakeel, and the son of Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar, among others in connection with the probe.
* The ED has also registered a money laundering case against Ibrahim, Iqbal Mirchi, Chhota Shakeel, Parkar and Javed Chikna after it found several hawala transactions linked to money illegally obtained through extortion, drug trafficking, sale of real estate in Nagpada and Bhendi Bazaar area of Mumbai, and other unlawful activities.
* The money laundering case against Dawood Ibrahim is based on a fresh case filed by National Investigation Agency earlier this month against the D Company under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
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