Malik did business with Mumbai blast convicts: Fadnavis

Leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday accused Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik and his family of purchasing a 2.80 acre plot from Mohammad Salim Patel, a “front man” of Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parker, and from Badshah Khan, a 1993 blast convict, in 2005. Addressing a press conference, the former chief minister said he had documents of five such property deals and would hand over the same to the appropriate authorities. He would also submit the documents to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar to let him know what his party functionaries were indulging in.

“There is a direct connection with the underworld. I have documents of five property deals. Four properties purchased connected with the underworld. I will ascertain which appropriate authorities, whether it is police, ED, NIA, and hand it over to them,” Fadnavis said. “Malik did business with people involved in blasts that shook Mumbai. He purchased land from convicts of the case at rates cheaper than market prices. Was this deal to save prime land from being forfeited under TADA law?” the BJP leader said.

However, Malik rubbished Fadnavis’ claims and said: “I will drop a hydrogen bomb tomorrow in connection with Fadnavis. Devendra Fadnavis is trying to malign my image by connecting me to blast convicts & the underworld. They did same by saying that drug was recovered from my place, will send him legal notice. I will expose underworld links of Devendra Fadnavis.” Malik added: “I think his sources are weak in their game, if he would have asked, I would have given him the original land documents myself.”

Meanwhile, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) vigilance team, led by NCB Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh has summoned Prabhakar Sail, a witness in the drugs-on-cruise case, for questioning for the second consecutive day in the alleged payoff in the case. Earlier on Monday, the NCB vigilance team questions Prabhakar Sail for over 10 hours. Singh had earlier informed that the NCB vigilance team is inspecting several locations in connection with the drugs-on-cruise case.

NCB officer Sameer Wankhede’s father Dhyandev K. Wankhede on Monday filed a police complaint against Nawab Malik under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly making false accusations regarding his family’s caste. The complaint was filed with the Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Oshiwara division in Mumbai. “I further say that the said accused Nawab Malik also in one interview with newspaper Sakal made a false and derogatory statement against myself and my family members regarding our caste. Not only that, on several occasions, while doing interaction with the print media as well as the electronic media, the said accused Nawab Malik has made derogatory statements and allegations against me and my family regarding our caste. That I have the footage/videos of said press/news events as well as concerning news articles. That I will produce the same as and when required by you while conducting the investigation of the present matter,” the written complaint to the Assistant Commissioner of Police read.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by NCB has summoned two persons for questioning in connection with a drug case involving Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan today, the agency said on Tuesday. The investigation of this matter was started again by the SIT team yesterday. Khan was earlier arrested on January 13 by NCB for dealing with commercial quantities of the drug. Sameer Khan was granted bail on 27 September, after eight months in prison.