Soon after former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis accused state minister Nawab Malik of having links with 1993 Mumbai bomb blast convicts, the NCP leader hit back, saying he would also expose Fadnavis’s alleged links with the underworld.
"I will drop a hydrogen bomb tomorrow in connection with Devendra Fadnavis. I will expose Fadnavis's underworld links," Malik said at a press conference in Mumbai.
He accused the BJP leader of trying to malign his image by connecting him to the blast convicts, and warned that he would send a legal notice to the former CM.
Earlier, Fadnavis alleged that the NCP minister had entered into a deal with the Mumbai blast convicts and bought land from them at a rate cheaper than the market value.
"Nawab Malik has dealings with people from the underworld people convicted in 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. He purchased land from convicts of the case at rates cheaper than market rates. Was this deal to save prime land from being forfeited under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) (TADA) law?" asked Fadnavis at a press conference.
The BJP leader claimed that he had found six properties out of which four have “direct 100 per cent link with the underworld”.
The war of words between Malik and BJP leaders began after the Narcotics Control Bureau’s raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast on October 2 and the following arrest of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan. Malik accused the BJP of misusing central agencies to defame Maharashtra and the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai. He even claimed that NCB zonal officer Sameer Wankhede was part of a plot to "kidnap" Aryan Khan.
Responding to it, Fadnavis alleged that Malik was just trying to put pressure on the NCB to weaken the charge sheet against his son-in-law. Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was arrested by the NCB and later granted bail by a court in a drug case in January.
