Money laundering case: Nawab Malik sent to judicial custody till March 21

The senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged money laundering case against fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and some of his close aides

Mumbai: A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Monday remanded Maharashtra minorities development minister Nawab Malik to judicial custody till March 21.

NCP leader and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik being taken to the Sessions Court from ED Office, in Mumbai on Monday. (Bhushan Koyande/ HT Photo)

The senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged money laundering case against fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and some of his close aides.

Malik was produced before special PMLA judge Rahul Rokade on Monday after his ED custody came to an end. Advocate Sunil Gonsalves, special counsel for the federal agency, urged the court to remand the 62-year-old politician to judicial custody.

While in judicial custody, Malik cannot be questioned by any investigating authority without prior permission of the PMLA court.

The ED arrested the state cabinet minister on February 23 in connection with a money laundering case registered against fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, wanted for the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts. The arrest was made after the ED raided premises of persons linked to the terror accused, including his late sister Haseena Parkar. Malik had reportedly transacted with some of Parkar’s aides over a Kurla property in the 2000s.

The ED’s case is based on a First Information Report (FIR) filed recently by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Ibrahim and others. The NIA had filed its criminal complaint under sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The minister’s custody was extended on March 3, after the ED argued that it needed to investigate another transaction related to a property allegedly “usurped” by Malik.

“The accused has also illegally occupied / usurped another property in Kurla. It appears that this property is usurped without there being any valid documents of sale and by threatening the owners of the land. Further investigation is necessary. When the victim protested, he was abducted from his home and threatened with dire consequences. The victim had also met the accused about the illegal occupancy (of the second Kurla property), but were told to forget the property,” the ED’s last remand application stated.

The ED’s first remand application claimed that Malik had usurped a property at Kurla, called Goawala Compound, measuring about three acres and valued at about ₹300 crore, by reportedly paying ₹5 lakh to Parkar (who did not have any claim to the property), thus indirectly funding her fugitive gangster brother’s activities.

The ED clarified that due to a typographical error in the application, the amount was initially shown to be ₹60 lakh.

“By paying consideration for illegally occupied share to Haseena Parkar, Nawab Malik aided the D-Company financially,” the remand application had stated.

Malik has denied the allegations and claimed the transaction was legitimate and backed by proper documentation. His lawyer argued that the minister was a victim of fraud and was induced to pay for something that did not actually did not belong to the seller.

These allegations first surfaced in November 2021, when opposition leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed a press conference stating that Malik had struck a property deal with 1993 Mumbai bomb blast convict Sardar Shahwali Khan and Mohd Salim Ishaq Patel, who was a frontman of Parkar. “A prime property of 2.80 acres at LBS Marg in Kurla was brought by Solidus Investment Private Limited for a meagre ₹30 lakh. The signatory of the deal transacted was Faraz Malik, son of Nawab Malik,” Fadnavis had said, adding that the transactions took place between 2004 and 2007.

Malik had clarified at the time that his family company had purchased the plot of land — Goawala compound in Kurla — which was owned by a certain Munira Plumber who had given the power of attorney to Patel. Malik denied having any knowledge of Patel’s antecedents. He further clarified that a certain portion of the compound (300m) was in the name of Sardar Shah Wali Khan, whose father was a watchman in the compound. Malik said they paid Khan to surrender his right to that plot.