Nawab Malik's Arrest Politically Motivated, Linked To Dawood As He Is Muslim: Pawar Slams PM Modi

The Enforcement Directorate detained Malik on February 23 as part of a money-laundering investigation into the actions of Dawood Ibrahim and his associates.

NCP Chief Sharad Pawar. (Source: Getty Images)

New Delhi: The arrest of NCP politician and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik is "politically motivated," according to NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who claims that attempts were made to link him to notorious Underworld criminal Dawood Ibrahim because he is a Muslim.

He also ignored the requests made by the opposition for Malik's resignation, news agency PTI reported.

The Enforcement Directorate detained Malik on February 23 as part of a money-laundering investigation into the actions of Dawood Ibrahim and his associates.

"Malik's arrest is a politically motivated one. He is being linked to Dawood Ibrahim because he is a Muslim. Malik and his family members are being deliberately harassed but we will fight back," Pawar was quoted by PTI in its report.

When questioned about the opposition BJP's call for Malik's resignation as a minister, the NCP chief said the BJP's Union minister Narayan Rane and Malik are held to different standards.

"I don't remember our (Congress') former party worker Narayan Rane had to resign after his arrest recently. Tomorrow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to Pune. He may explain more about it. Applying one yardstick for Malik and another for Rane shows that all this was politically motivated," he claimed.

Rane was detained by police in August in Sangameshwar, Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, for claiming that he would have slapped state Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray if he had forgotten the year India gained independence during his Independence Day address.

"I have seen the record of phone tapping of various leaders. It was done during the tenure of the Devendra Fadnavis government. Officials merely followed the orders and are now facing the consequences. I have never seen such a situation in the country before," Pawar said while speaking about suspected phone monitoring of some politicians when BJP was in power.

Pawar also took a shot at the BJP and Maharashtra governor B S Koshyari, who has yet to approve the names of 12 MLCs provided to him by the Maharashtra cabinet for nomination to the Legislative Council more than a year ago.

(With PTI Inputs)