Nawab Malik moves HC seeking to quash ED case; plea alleges arrest was Illegal
Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik have pleaded in the High Court to quash charges against him and sought to be released immediately in the money laundering case. The NCP leader was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 23 in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case involving underworld Don and terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.
In his petition, Malik has stated that he was illegally arrested for being a “vocal critique of the misuse of central agencies since actor Rhea Chakraborty‘s arrest.”
Malik is in the custody of the ED probe agency till March 3. An ECIR is akin to an FIR registered by police but while FIR is a public document, ECIR is an internal document of the ED by which the agency initiates the investigation of a case.
Malik also went on to say that his arrest was illegal as the due procedure was not followed. He claims that he was forcibly picked up from his house on the morning of Feb 23 at about 6 am without any summons or notice under Section 41-A of the CrPC, and thereafter detained at the ED office. He alleged that he was served with a summons while he was already in the ED’s custody and the summon asked him to be present at 8 am on that very day.
The ED had on February 18 arrested Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar and Salim Qureshi, an aide of Chhota Shakeel, was also interrogated in the matter.
On February 3 the NIA had received information that Dawood Ibrahim was raising terror funds and was working with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Al Qaeda (AQ). He was controlling criminal activities in India through his close aides.
The Central probe agency conducted nine raids and recovered incriminating documents from the premises of Dawood’s aides. Chhota Shakeel’s relative Salim Fruit told the probe agency that in 2006 he met Chhota Shakeel three to four times during his Pakistan visit.
Malik has denied having any connection to the investigation being done by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) against underworld fugitive, Dawood Ibrahim.
The allegation against Malik is that in connivance with Dawood’s sister Haseena Parkar, he snatched away a 3-acre parcel of land at a throwaway price 20 years ago.
Malik has rebutted by saying that the actual landowner had given a Power of Attorney (POA) to Parker’s driver Salim Patel which showed that he had the authority to sell the property. It was only after seeing the POA that Malik had shelled out Rs.85 lakh to buy the property.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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