The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday submitted a charge sheet against NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik in Special PMLA court, in connection with the Dawood Ibrahim money laundering case. The charge sheet contains 5000 pages and includes a statement of witnesses and other documentary evidence.
According to the reports, the ED has also decided to file a charge sheet against Faraz Malik and Aamir Malik, sons of Nawab Malik, after they failed to appear before the agency for questioning in connection with the case.
Mumbai | Enforcement Directorate submits around 5000-page chargesheet against NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik in Special PMLA court, in connection with a money laundering case pic.twitter.com/E1nFoqY5xf
— ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2022
Reportedly, the ED had sent three summons to Faraz Malik and two to Aamir Malik, but the duo failed to appear before the agency. The allegations posed by the ED against Malik are serious but the approach of the NCP leader and his sons seems to be informal and uninhibited in the case.
The ED had arrested him in the case of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act related to elements linked to Dawood Ibrahim and the underworld. There were reports saying that Malik was involved in the Hawala transfers operated by Dawood Ibrahim.
On February 15, the ED had conducted multiple raids in South Mumbai in connection with a money laundering case against the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aides. Close to 9 places in Mumbai and 1 in Thane had been raided including the residences of Dawood Ibrahim’s late sister Haseena Parkar and brother Iqbal Kaskar.
#WATCH | Mumbai: NCP leader and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik being brought out of Enforcement Directorate office, to be taken for medical examination.
— ANI (@ANI) February 23, 2022
He has been arrested by Enforcement Directorate in connection with Dawood Ibrahim money laundering case. pic.twitter.com/UMAVK5ZEVW
The agency later took into custody Iqbal Kaskar on February 19 and presented him before the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court. Also, the National Investigation Agency had said that Dawood Ibrahim was planning to launch terror attacks in India and that he was transferring funds through Hawala channels to provide financial help to all those involved in a planned attack.
Nawab Malik’s name appeared in the process of investigation after the intelligence inputs directed the agency to look into the Hawala transactions while probing a money laundering case against Ibrahim, Iqbal Mirchi, Chhota Shakeel, Parkar, and Javed Chikna.
ED recently has attached properties of Nawab Malik which include Goawala Compound, Commercial Unit at Kurla West, Mumbai, 147.794 acres of agricultural land in Osmanabad district, three flats in Kurla West, and two flats in Bandra West, Mumbai. His companies named Solidus Investments Pvt Ltd and Malik Infrastructure have also been seized.
Reportedly, the Supreme Court has stated to hear Malik’s plea filed against an order of the Bombay High Court which had rejected his interim application seeking immediate release in a case of money laundering being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate. The Bombay High Court had said that just because the special PMLA court’s order remanding him in custody is not in his favour, it does not make the order illegal or wrong. The hearing in SC is scheduled for Friday.
