Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, March 3: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) detention of Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik has been extended to March 7 by a Special PMLA court.
The Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money-laundering investigation involving fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his associates.
Malik was arrested on February 23 at the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) office in south Mumbai after being questioned for around five hours. On Thursday, he was brought before special court judge RN Rokade after the completion of his initial remand. The judge ordered that he be held in detention until March 7 as the case is investigated further.
The accused is being ordered to further detention since he was in hospital from February 25 to 28 (during his prior ED custody) and new facts have emerged throughout the investigation, according to the court. The ED’s case is predicated on the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) recent filing of a FIR against Dawood Ibrahim and others. The National Institute of Justice had filed a criminal complaint under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).