Fadnavis linked to Riyaz Bhati, Haidar Azam, Munna Yadav: Malik's fresh salvo against BJP
He said Bhati, an accused Dawood Ibrahim aide, was seen at dinner table with Fadnavis
He said Bhati, an accused Dawood Ibrahim aide, was seen at dinner table with Fadnavis
He said Bhati, an accused Dawood Ibrahim aide, was seen at dinner table with Fadnavis
He said Bhati, an accused Dawood Ibrahim aide, was seen at dinner table with Fadnavis
In fresh allegations levelled at the BJP, Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik accused former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of defending criminals in his tenure. He named (Omprakash) Munna Yadav, a BJP leader accused of numerous criminal cases and was at one point reported absconding, as being close to Fadnavis. He said Riyaz Bhati, an accused Dawood Ibrahim aide, was seen at a dinner table with Fadnavis and in a photograph with PM Modi.
"Nagpur's notorious criminal Munna Yadav was appointed chairman of Construction Workers' Board by Devendra Fadnavis during his govt. One Haidar Azam, involved in illegal immigration of Bangladeshis, was appointed chairman of Maulana Azad Finance Corporation by Fadnavis," Malik said. He said that NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, the person most in the eye of the storm after the drugs bust, was very close to Fadnavis, and hence the latter was defending him.
Malik's accusations were part of a bigger political battle brewing between the BJP and the opposition, in the aftermath of the drugs bust case, in Maharashtra. Malik on Tuesday had refuted Fadnavis's charge that the former had bought land parcels from the people linked with the underworld, saying he will drop a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday and expose the "underworld links" of the BJP leader. Malik said he did not buy any property from anyone who is linked to the underworld or is a convict in a bomb blast case. He said by trying to link him with the underworld and bomb blast convicts, Fadnavis is maligning his image.
Hours before, Fadnavis had alleged that a company of Nawab Malik and his family members had purchased land in suburban Kurla at a very cheap rate through fictitious documents from two convicts of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. He also alleged that Malik and his family members had entered into land deals with people associated with the underworld.
Malik said his daughter will send a legal notice to Fadnavis on Wednesday for his comments against his son-in-law Sameer Khan, who was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) earlier this year and later released on bail.
Fadnavis had said Malik and his family members were part of a company that purchased land in the Kurla area of Mumbai at a very low rate by making some fictitious documents from Sardar Shahwali Khan and Saleem Ishaq Patel, who were convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. Malik said he has been in public life for over 26 years and no one has levelled charges, linking him to the underworld and blast convicts.