Mumbai: A special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) sent Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) till March 3.
Malik was arrested earlier in the day in a money laundering case linked with underworld activities and fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
Additional solicitor general Anil Singh and advocate Hiten Venegaonkar had sought 14-day custody of Malik for completing the investigation into the matter.
The central agency arrested the Maharashtra minister after questioning him for over seven hours. According to news reports, he was not cooperating with the authorities during the process.
Malik was taken to a government hospital for a checkup and later produced before the court. Lawyers Amit Desai and Taraq Sayed argued for the 62-year-old minister.
The NCP leader said ED officials came to his residence and forcibly took him to their office. He vowed to “fight” and “expose everyone” on Twitter soon after his arrest.
Several opposition party leaders, including Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, and some Congress leaders have come out in support of Malik.
