Nawab Malik becomes first serving Minister to be held for money laundering

 New Delhi :

Much to the embarrassment of Shiv Sena-led coalition dispensation in Maharashtra, state minister andNCP leader Nawab Malik was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday.

ED Assistant Director Niraj Kumar said in his arrest order that the agency had "reason to believe" that Malik "has been found guilty of an offence punishable under the provisions of PMLA".

Shortly after the formal arrest, Malik was whisked away by an ED team to a government hospital for a medical check-up and then produced before a designated special PMLA court.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh represented the ED while Malik's counsel was Amit Desai. The vocal minister's colleagues, kins and political activists reached the court.

The fast-paced developments started with an ED team along with a CISF team knocking at Malik's home at around 4.30 am (Wednesday) and taking him away a couple of hours later for questioning in the 17-year-old Kurla land deal case having a mafia taint.

The gory episode is seen as a massive jolt to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and also Malik became the first sitting Cabinet minister to be arrested.

Malik is the Minority Affairs Minister in Uddhav Thackeray government but the coalition partners decided

not to drop him from the cabinet as of now.

A series of meetings took place between top leaders of Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Congress, sources said in Mumbai.

A number of NCP workers staged a noisy protest outside the ED's office.

Another key NCP leader and former Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh, was arrested by the ED on November 2 last year in a money-laundering and alleged corruption cases.

NCP chief Pawar held a meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray while Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the incumbent Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Ashok Chavan and others alsoattended. Pawar reportedly also spoke on the matter to his colleagues, Jayant Patil, Supriya Sule and Majeed Memon andalso Sena leader Sanjay Raut.

BJP Leader and LoP Devendra Fadnavis termed the matter as "extremely serious" since the land worth crores of rupees was allegedly grabbed at a throwaway price in the deal.The persons linked to absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, the BJP leaders say.

BJP state President Chandrakant Patil demanded that since Malik has been arrested, he should quit.

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