MumbaiMaharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar protested against the arrest of Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik in a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). ) and several other state ministers staged a sit-in on Thursday.
Pawar was the first to reach the protest site near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near the state secretariat Mantralaya. State Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil, Health Minister Rajesh Tope, Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil, Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar, Minister of State for Home Satej Patil and Minister of State for Tourism Aditi Tatkare also joined the protest.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule and State Women’s Commission chairperson Rupali Chakankar were also present during the event. Speaking to reporters, Thorat claimed that central investigative agencies are being used to silence political rivals. “It is quite unfortunate and a dark chapter in the country’s history,” the Congress leader said. NCP state unit chief Jayant Patil said the allegations against Malik were “baseless”. He said that Malik will answer all the charges against him of terrorism-related links in the court.
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He claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “attempt to oust the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government from power” has not yet succeeded. “The action against the cabinet member is part of this.” The ED on Wednesday arrested Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik (62) in connection with its probe into a money laundering case. Malik was then produced before a special court dealing with money laundering cases, which remanded him to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till March 3.
The agency says that this investigation is related to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, his associates and the Mumbai underworld. After a meeting of top leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi on Wednesday evening, a senior NCP leader had said that there was no question of taking Malik’s resignation as he had not done anything wrong. MVA, consists of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress.