Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik being questioned by ED

Nationalist Congress Party National Spokesperson and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik went to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office for a probe on Wednesday morning. A team of ED sleuths was questioning him though it was not immediately clear which specific case is being probed.

Last week, the National Investigation Agency had raided certain properties linked with the absconder mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.

Five days ago, the ED arrested the don's younger brother, Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar in connection with a money-laundering case lodged against him.

The NCP Spokesperson Vidya Chavan and Shiv Sena leader Kishore Tiwari strongly condemned the manner in which the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is abusing the official machinery to silence political opponents.

BJP's spokespersons Atul Bhatkalkar and Ram Kadam said that the party had already submitted full details of an alleged business deal between Malik and the mafia don.

These charges came soon after the NCB conducted raids at a cruise in October last year and arrested 20 people including actor Shah Rukh Khan's Aryan Khan.

Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan was also arrested in a drugs case by the Narcotics Control Bureau's Mumbai unit last year.

This ED action comes after the registration of a new case and raids conducted by it on February 15 in Mumbai in connection with the operations of the underworld, Ibrahim's aides, linked alleged illegal property deals and hawala transactions.

The searches were conducted at 10 locations, including premises linked to 1993 Mumbai blasts mastermind Dawood Ibrahim's late sister Haseena Parkar, brother Iqbal Kaskar and Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit, brother-in-law of gangster Chhota Shakeel.

(with agency inputs)