‘Nawab Malik jailed on basis of statement given with 23 years delay’: Advocate tells Court

NCP leader Nawab Malik has suffered for five months after his arrest on the basis of a statement of Kurla land’s original owner Munira Plumber that popped up 23 years late, the politician’s advocate told a court on Friday during his bail hearing.

Malik was arrested in February this year in the money laundering case where the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged he usurped the land with the help of D-gang members and gained Rs. 16 crores.

The advocate reasoned that if the Goawala compound in Kurla is considered the asset of the D-gang, he asked who was its owner, referring to Munira. “Is Malik the offender or Munira, who for years had ownership of Goawala and whose rent was probably going to a terrorist organization,” he asked. The advocate added that 23 yrs later, on Munira's oral testimony, Malik has lost his liberty because the Enforcement Directorate chose to rely on the co-conspirator and put in jail “the innocent purchaser for value”, he said, referring to Malik.

Advocate Desai also pointed out that the ED has relied on the statement of a 1993 Bombay blast convict Sardar Khan who is undergoing life imprisonment for the offence. “His statement is very reliable! The investigating agency did not find any other witness, that they went to a convict in bomb blast case, whereas Malik has been a representative of people for the past 40 yrs.”

The ED claims that Malik had illegally occupied a part of the land in 1996 and after becoming a minister, had usurped the entire land with the help of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar. The plumber who claims to be the original owner of the land told the ED that she had not sold the land to Malik and had come to learn about the sale only through media reports.

Published on: Friday, July 29, 2022, 11:22 PM IST