Maharashtra’s Minister of Minority Development and Skill Development and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik was remanded to the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) custody for seven days on Wednesday in a money laundering case connected to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Judge Rahul Rokade sent Mr. Malik to ED custody till March 3 after he was picked up from his residence at 7 a.m. and questioned by the central agency for seven hours.
The Minister told the court how he was picked up early in the morning, detained, and then asked to sign on the copy of the summons.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh represented the ED and referred to a first information report (FIR) registered on February 3 against Dawood, who is involved in various terror activities and money laundering. Mr. Singh said Dawood's sister Haseena Parker, who is now dead, was controlling his acts for him and had acquired a lot of properties. Referring to a particular ancestral property in Kurla, he said it belonged to one Munira and Marium. Parkar's associate Salim Patel was given the power of attorney to remove encroachments and not to sell the land. Another Sardar Khan, a 1993 blast convict, is the brother of the rent collector who illegally sold the property.
Mr. Singh alleged Munira and her sister were not given any authorisation to sell their rights in the property and that they came to know from media reports that the property was sold to Mr. Malik through one of the companies belonging to him. Munira has told the ED that she did not receive any consideration for this property and there was nothing to show a single rupee was paid to the actual owners of the property.
Mr. Singh concluded, "This is the manner in which the proceeds of crime have been laundered...Ms. Parker transferred the rights of the property to Mr. Malik for a substantial amount of [₹]55 lakhs when the property was [worth] for ₹3.3 crore. There is enough evidence to make a case under the PMLA."
Senior advocate Amit Desai representing Mr. Malik, referred to the power of attorney of the year 1999 and pointed out that it was six years after the Act came out. The Indian Constitution says there is no retrospectivity in criminal law. Mr. Desai argued that his client was “known for these offences for the past 30 years” but an FIR was registered only on February 3. There was nothing that linked Mr. Malik to any of these allegations, he said. Mr. Desai also took strong objection to the word “terror funding” used in the remand application by the ED, pointed out the word “guilty” in the arrest memo, and said, “At this rate, we will not need the courts.”
