The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday questioned Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik in a money laundering probe linked to the activities of the Mumbai underworld.
The NCP leader arrived at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Mumbai and the agency was said to be recording his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED's move comes after registration of a new case and raids conducted by it on February 15 in Mumbai in connection with the operations of the underworld, linked alleged illegal property deals and hawala transactions. The searches were conducted at 10 locations, including premises linked to 1993 Mumbai blasts mastermind and fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's late sister Haseena Parkar, brother Iqbal Kaskar and Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit, brother-in-law of gangster Chhota Shakeel.
The action on Nawab Malik created ripples as the NCP leader had emerged as a prominent critic of the BJP in Maharashtra. Late last year, he had accused former BJP chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of having links to drug smugglers. He had also levelled a number of allegations against former NCB official Sameer Wankhede.
Congress and NCP leaders reacted to the news of the questioning of Malik by the ED. Maharashtra Congress leader Sachin Sawant tweeted “It was known that Modi government would target” Nawab Malik. He accused the BJP of abusing the Central government's authority.
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NCP MP Supriya Sule was quoted by ANI as saying “For many days, people of BJP were tweeting that ED notice will come against Nawab Malik and Maha Vikas Aghadi. They directly took him to the ED office without any notice. I don't know what new type of politics they have started. It's an insult to Maharashtra.”
NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto tweeted, “This action on Mr. Nawab Malik is nothing but pressure tactics to silence his voice. He was exposing the wrongdoings of some people as a Chief Spokesperson of a political party. Voices of truth cannot be silenced.”
NCP minister Jayant Patil termed the questioning of Nawab Malik as “abuse of power”.
