Nawab Malik Arrested: Amid the heat of Uttar Pradesh election, Maharashtra politics was rocked on Wednesday (February 23, 2022) by the arrest of Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case linked to the Mumbai underworld.
The ED questioned Malik for several hours at its Mumbai office before arresting him, however, the 62-year-old leader was undeterred by the action against him.
"Will fight and win. Won’t bow down," Malik said waving to waiting media as he stepped out of the ED office in south Mumbai after spending eight hours there. "Will expose all," he said, before being taken by ED officials in a vehicle for medical check-up.
The minister later tweeted a video clip of him making those remarks.His office also tweeted, “Main jhukega nahi! (won't bow down)."
Malik's arrest prompted Sharad Pawar, chief of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which is part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, to call an emergency meeting.
Why is Nawab Malik important for Sharad Pawar
Nawab Malik is considered to be a close confidante of veteran leader Sharad Pawar. Malik, who is also NCP spokesperson, is one of the most prominent leaders of NCP that is largely centered in Maharashtra only.
Malik, a five-time MLA from Mumbai's Anushakti Nagar constituency, is NCP's top Muslim face. He had started his political journey with the Congress and joined the Samajwadi Party later. He walked into Pawar's NCP after being expelled from the Samajwadi Party.
Nawab Malik is not new to controversies. In 2005, he had resign from minister's post in the then NCP-Congress alliance government after he was indicted in a corruption case.
More recently, Malik was in the news on a daily basis as he released a barrage of allegations against Sameer Wankhede, former Mumbai zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), following a drugs raid on a cruise ship in Mumbai in October last year.
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