Nationalist Congress Party and Congress ministers of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra on Thursday joined a protest in Mumbai against the arrest of state minority affairs minister Nawab Malik, reported The Hindu.
A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court on Wednesday sent Malik to Enforcement Directorate custody till March 3. The Enforcement Directorate has claimed that Malik, a senior Nationalist Congress Party leader, allegedly funded a terror network through gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and other Maharashtra ministers, including Balasaheb Thorat, Chhagan Bhujbal, Jitendra Awahad, Satej Patil, were present at the protest held at the Mahatma Gandhi statue near Mantralaya, according to The Indian Express. Nationalist Congress Parliamentarian Supriya Sule was also present.
Bhujbal said the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to “tarnish” Malik’s name by linking him to Dawood Ibrahim, according to The Hindu. “It becomes particularly easy to influence people when a Muslim party activist is smeared with the ‘Dawood Ibrahim’ taint,” Bhujbal added.
Thorat, a Congress leader, said that given the central government’s control over the investigating agency, it was clear that that action against Malik was because the BJP “could not bear to see” the smooth functioning of the Maharashtra coalition government.
Nationalist Congress Party state president Jayant Patil said it was a clear trend that those speaking against the BJP would be targeted by the central investigating agencies for obscure cases. Patil said that Malik had an “unblemished record” and is now being linked with terrorists for the sale of property 20 years ago.
Members of the Shiv Sena, also a part of the coalition government, were not initially not present at the protest site. But, later senior leader and minister Subhash Desai and other legislators arrived.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, held counter protests in parts of Maharashtra, including Pune. Members demanded Malik’s resignation from the state Cabinet and an investigation into his alleged “links” with Ibrahim. In Nagpur, BJP workers burnt an effigy of Malik as well as Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Protests will also be held across Maharashtra on Friday as well, the leaders of the coalition government said.
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