Nawab Malik says defamation of Maha govt needs to stop, hits out at ED & BJP's Somaiya

Malik said ED officers keep telling the media that they will raid his house. “Instead of this whispering campaign, they can directly ask me to appear, I will do so,” he added.

Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik on Saturday said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya were indulging in a whisper campaign against him. He said a first information report (FIR) against a BJP leader next week and he would be arrested.

File photo of Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik (PTI)

Stating that defamation of the Maharashtra government by the ED needs to stop, the senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader said agency officers keep telling the media that they will raid his house.

“Somaiya has levelled allegations of fraud against me in a Waqf Board land case. Today, he said the ED will visit my house in the matter. Instead of this whispering campaign, they can directly ask me to appear, I will do so,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

On Friday, Malik said some “government guests” were soon going to pay him a visit. “Friends, I have heard that government guests will come to my home today or tomorrow, I welcome them,” the NCP leader tweeted in Hindi.

Getting scared was akin to dying, he said, adding “…we don't have to feel scared, we have to fight.” “Gandhi ladhe the goron se, hum ladhenge choron se (Mahatma Gandhi had fought against the British, we will fight against thieves,” he wrote further.

(With agency inputs)