NCP leader Nawab Malik grilled by ED in money laundering case

Highlights

Nawab Malik's links in relation to some property deals are under the radar of the ED
He is being grilled in a money laundering probe linked to activities of Dawood and his aides

Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra's Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate office in Mumbai in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.

Malik, 62, was summoned by ED in connection with a property with alleged links to the underworld. His questioning is underway, news agency ANI reported.

He arrived at the ED's office in south Mumbai's Ballard Estate area around 8 AM and the agency is recording his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials told PTI.

Malik's alleged links in relation to some property deals are said to be under the radar of the federal probe agency and hence his questioning was necessitated.

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. Kaskar, who was already in jail, has been arrested by the agency last week. It also questioned Parkar's son.

The minister had been in the news for the last few months after he made a number of personal and service-related allegations of wrongdoing against former Mumbai NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede. These charges came soon after the NCB conducted raids at a cruise in October last year and arrested 20 people including actor Shah Rukh Khan's Aryan Khan. Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan was also arrested in a drugs case by the Narcotics Control Bureau's Mumbai unit last year.