Even as senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik continues to be under observation at JJ Hospital in south Mumbai, his family lashed out at the Enforcement Directorate, saying that the case presented against him was a flimsy one based entirely on ‘convenience’.Malik’s son Amir, who is a lawyer, said that the ED had very conveniently dragged up names connected to past terror cases, with scant connection to the truth.“Almost everybody named in the case is either dead, like Haseena Parkar or Mr Patel from whom we bought Solidus Investments when it was going into loss; or out of the country, like Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, (Mushtaq alias Tiger) Memon and Javed Patel alias Javed Chikna. Simply buying a piece of land does not mean that my father has financed any terrorist activities, as the ED would have us believe,” Amir said.The absence of a criminal complaint by Munira Plumber, the original owner of the plot of land in question, may also deal a severe blow to the ED’s case. The agency has referred to two suits filed by her in the Small Causes court in 1989 and 1995 against Malik, and further stated that she never filed a criminal complaint as she ‘feared for her life’.“The Small Causes Court is a civil court, and there needs to be a criminal complaint for such a charge to stand, which was never made,” Amir said.Malik was arrested by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act earlier this month and was subsequently taken to JJ hospital after he complained of severe abdominal pain. He is still admitted there and expected to be there for a couple of more days.“He is better now but the pain persists and he needs to be under observation,” his daughter Nilofer Malik Khan said.Asked whether Malik’s family would continue the battle that Malik has been fighting against the Central government and their alleged misuse of central agencies, Nilofer said that they would take things as they come on that front.Amir, too, concurred, saying, “The bigger battle in front of us right now is the one we have to fight in court over this case.”
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