ED: Malik paid only ₹20 lakh to usurp Goawala Compound spread over 3 acres
MUMBAI: Maharashtra minority development and Aukaf minister Nawab Malik paid only ₹20 lakh to acquire Goawala Compound in Kurla in a deal dating back to September 2005, and paid the amount to people other than the owner of the three-acre compound, Munira Plumber, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in its 5,000-page chargesheet.
The 63-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader who is minister in-charge of Aukaf, or the department that regulates Muslim public charitable trusts (wakf), was arrested on February 23, in connection with a moneylaundering case registered against fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his close associates like Shakeel Shaikh Babu Moiuddin aka Chhota Shakeel, Ibrahim Mushtaq Abdul Razzaq Memon aka Tigar Memon.
The ED in its chargesheet claimed, “For usurping the property, Haseena Parkar [Dawood’s sister now deceased], Nawab Malik, Salim Patel and Sardar Khan [currently lodged in Aurangabad central prison for his role in the March 1993 Mumbai serial bombings] conspired among themselves and after several rounds of meetings amicably settled the issue by distributing the property among themselves without paying a penny to Mrs Munira S. Plumber.”
Malik denied the charges which were first raised by leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis last November. Fadnavis claimed that a company controlled by Malik’s family purchased the land from a man who was Parkar’s frontman, and for far lesser than its market rate.
ED’S arguments
In the chargesheet filed on April 21 — HT has seen parts of it — the ED named Sardar Shahvali Khan, who is serving life term at Aurangabad central prison for his role in the March 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai, and two of Malik’s family firms, M/s. Solidus Investments Pvt. Ltd. and M/s. Malik Infrastructure, as accused in this case.
The ED registered its case based on a first information report filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on February 3, as part of its probe into the Dawood gang’s involvement in arms smuggling, narcoterrorism, money laundering, circulating fake currency notes and unauthorised possession of assets. ED claimed that Malik and Parkar connived to usurp the land using a fabricated power of attorney, after the death of Plumber’s father, Fazleabbas Goawala, following which “nobody was looking after the property”.
Malik’s refutations
The ED officials recorded three statements of the old NCP leader. The first was recorded before his arrest. According to statement Malik told the ED, “In the Goawala compound they were having godown there and shops. His brother Aslam Malik was looking after it. They were having these godown and shops since 1995 on tenancy basis.”
Malik further told the ED that there were encroachments in the open area of the compound, which his brother Aslam Malik sought to “stop the same”.