Did Nawab Malik Give Rs 55 Lakh to Don Dawood Ibrahim?
Nawab Malik, the second Maharashtra Minister to be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate faces charges related to a land deal linked to fugitive terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.
Nawab Malik, is a five-time MLA, of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is a part of Maharashtra's Shiv Sena-led government. He is the minister in charge of Minority Affairs. In Mumbai’s Kurla there was a property worth ? 300 crore. In 1999 Dawood Ibrahim’s associate, Salim Patel, had taken control of the Kurla property from its original owners. He told the owners to sign on a document saying that Salim would have full control over the property. Later, a portion of this property was transferred to Nawab Malik and the other to Haseena Parkar who is Dawood’s sister. Later, in 2005, Nawab Malik paid ? 55 lakh to Dawood Ibrahim's sister and bought the entire property. This is how Malik paid money to support Dawood Ibrahim's gang which does terrorist activits and illegal things. This was all illegal. Earlier this month, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against Dawood Ibrahim and his associates for alleged terror financing through hawala networks.
They knew about the Kurla property and that the property was sold to finance Dawood’s activities. However, Malik’s involvement was not known at that time. But no one had filed an FIR about the Kurla property so the NIA could not do anything about it. That’s when the Enforcement Directorate took notice of the Kurla land case and started an investigation. The ED had conducted raids at the home of Dawood Ibrahim's HP sister in Mumbai and had also questioned Parkar's son Alishah Parkar and Dawood’s associate Salim Qureshi. Later Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood Ibrahim's brother, was arrested in the case last week. During the ED’s investigation they found out that Malik had paid Rs 55 lakh for the Kurla property to support Dawood’s gang. On 23 February 2022 the ED searched Nawab Malik's residence and then took him to the ED’s office in Ballard Estate. The minister was arrested after over five hours of questioning. An official said, "He gave evasive replies and did not cooperate at all." Malik said that he would not bow down to the ED and expose everyone. Meanwhile, NCP workers gathered outside the Enforcement Directorate office and started raising slogans in support of Malik.
