A special court in Mumbai has extended the custodial remand of Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik, arrested in connection with a money laundering case involving underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim, till March 7.
Malik was produced before the court after the expiry of remand. The ED officials told the court that Malik was required for further interrogation. The court after hearing their argument allowed his custody till March 7.
On February 23, the ED had arrested Malik and got his custodial remand till March 3.
ED sources have claimed that they have established money trail linking Nawab Malik to people connected to the underworld. ED sources have also claimed that they have found details of benami investments of Nawab Malik in a few real estate projects.
The ED had on February 18 arrested Dawood's brother Iqbal Kaskar in the matter. Salim Qureshi, an aide of Chhota Shakeel was also interrogated in the matter.
On February 3, the NIA received an information that Dawood Ibrahim was raising terror funds and was working with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Al Qaeda (AQ). He was controlling criminal activities in India through close aides.
The ED filed a PMLA case against Dawood. Another case was lodged against his brother Iqbal Kaskar, Iqbal Kashka, Iqbal Mirchi and 19 others. Later both the case were merged by the ED.
The Central probe agency conducted nine raids and recovered incriminating documents from the premises of Dawood's aide.
Chhota Shakeel's relative Salim Fruit told the probe agency that in 2006 he met Chhota Shakeel three-four times during his Pakistan visit.