A special court, that remanded Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), said on Friday, 25 February, that there were reasonable grounds to claim that the allegations made against the Maharashtra minister are "well-founded", PTI reported.
Malik was arrested by the ED on Wednesday, 23 February, in connection with the Dawood Ibrahim money laundering case.
RN Rokade, a special judge 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.
On Wednesday, the court had asked the ED to take Malik into custody till 3 March.
'Malik Not Cooperating': Court Says
The PMLA court also noted that as per a report, Malik was not cooperating with the ED regarding crucial elements of the case, as per reports by PTI.
"Prima facie, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the accusations are well-founded under PMLA," judge Rokade added.
He also said that currently the case was in its initial stages and it was important for the ED to conduct a thorough interrogation to unearth different aspects of the case.
The case by the ED is based on an FIR filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against underworld gangster Ibrahim and the D Company under the domain of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
(With inputs from PTI.)
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