A special Mumbai court on Thursday, 3 March, extended the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) custody of Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik till 7 March for further probe into the case.
The accused, a minister in Uddhav Thackeray's Maharashtra government and a senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, was sent to ED custody till 3 March, in connection with a money laundering case linked to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
The BJP minister who was arrested on 23 February was produced before RN Rokade, special court judge, at the end of his earlier remand.
Considering that Malik was hospitalised between 25 and 28 February (during his initial ED custody) and that certain new facts have come up during the investigation, the minister's custody has been extended, the court said.
In a previous hearing on 25 February, RN Rokade, who has been assigned to hear cases pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), said that the detention of Malik was necessary as the investigation would take a sufficient amount of time.
The case is based on an FIR that was lodged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Dawood Ibrahim and others. The NIA filed a criminal complaint under certain sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)