After a special court in Mumbai refused to grant temporary bail to them to cast their votes in the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on Friday, Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik and former minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday approached the Bombay high court for relief.
Continuing his tirade against Nartocits Control Bureau's Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Friday said he would expose some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and their alleged connection with the officer in the winter session of the state Legislature to be held in December.
Malik also strongly backed former Maharashtra home minister and party colleague Anil Deshmukh, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, saying he was being "framed" by misusing central agencies.
Ajit Pawar's NCP, a constituent of Mahayuti, was winning or leading in 41 of the 59 seats it contested as per the latest figures released by the Election Commission.
A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday reserved till Thursday its order on the bail pleas of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and state minister Nawab Malik seeking the one-day relief to cast their votes in the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections.
Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday sought to know why the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) was saving Kashif Khan, one of the organisers of the cruise party where the NCB conducted a raid last month, and what was his relationship with the anti-drugs agency officer Sameer Wankhede.
Malik also alleged that Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty was implicated in a 'fake case' by the NCB.
The NCP minister said while fake notes were seized in other states after demonetisation on November 8 2016, there was not a single such instance in Maharashtra.
A witness in a money-laundering case against Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik has stated before the Enforcement Directorate that fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim is based in Pakistan's Karachi city, while another witness said he was told that Dawood would send Rs 10 lakh to his siblings every month.
Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday told the Bombay high court that the defamation suit filed against him by Dhyandev Wankhede, father of Narcotics Control Bureau zonal director Sameer Wankhede, was only an attempt to cover-up the 'illegalities' committed by the IRS officer and claimed none of his statements against them was false.
"Pawar saheb had last week said that he wanted the opposition parties to come together. It is not important who will lead the front. That can be decided later. But, the opposition needs to come together," Malik said.
It was a mixed bag for 11 seats with more than 35 percent Muslim voters, where six candidates of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi emerged victorious in the Maharashtra assembly polls on Saturday, while four seats went to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance.
Former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau Sameer Wankhede on Thursday filed an affidavit in a court in Maharashtra's Washim district, stating their family belongs to a Scheduled Caste community and has not embraced any other religion.
Launching a scathing attack on Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik on Thursday dubbed the officer as 'bogus' and asserted that once 'proof' against him is out, he can not remain in government service for even one day.
The order says that Wankhede belongs to Mahar caste, which is a Scheduled Caste (SC).
Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik has stated before the Bombay high court that he spoke out against Sameer Wankhede as people have the right to know how the Narcotics Control Bureau official got his job 'illegally.'
Maharashtra NCP minister Nawab Malik on Monday claimed that Narcotics Control Bureau's zonal director Sameer Wankhede used forged documents including his birth certificate. Wankhede, an IRS officer of the 2008 batch, slammed the minister, saying his action was defamatory in nature and an invasion of his family's privacy.
Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Thursday accused NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede and his family of obtaining two separate certificates of his mother following her death in 2015, each mentioning her as Muslim and Hindu.
A special court here which granted bail to Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan has observed that there was no evidence to establish that Khan was involved in drug trafficking.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said his party had anticipated such an action against its leader Malik as he 'speaks openly'.
Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Sunday alleged that Narcotic Control Bureau's Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede was part of a plot to 'kidnap' Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
NCP leader Nawab Malik had levelled a string of allegations against the NCB official, including illegal phone tapping.
'I had performed the 'nikah' of Sameer Wankhede and Shabana Qureshi. Her father had approached me to perform the marriage in the Lokhandwala complex area of Mumbai. The groom's name was Sameer Dawood Wankhede who married Shabana Qureshi'
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Thursday left the Vidhan Bhavan premises without completing his address to the joint session of the state legislature amid slogan-shouting by legislators.
In doing so, it further cemented the community's determination to support the opposition. But at the same time, it consolidated its Hindu vote bank like never before.
The central government, in its typical sledgehammer style, has unleashed the might of its investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate against NCP and Shiv Sena leaders.
The Bombay high court will pronounce on Friday its order on two petitions filed by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik and former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, both jailed Nationalist Congress Party legislators, seeking permission to cast their votes in the MLC elections scheduled on June 20.
A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala was told by advocate Sudhanshu S Choudhuri that the two MLAs have been booked for offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and are in jail.
Against the strength of 288, the effective strength is 287, as there is one vacancy due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke last month.
The Narcotics Control Bureau's former zonal director Sameer Wankhede has approached the Bombay high court challenging a notice issued to him by a caste certificate scrutiny committee, asking him to show cause as to why his caste certificate should not be confiscated.
On Thursday, the bench, after perusing the plea copy, noted that Wankhede had approached the Central Administrative Tribunal, too, against the notices issued to him by the NCB.
Malik said that there has been no such talk in the party or with other parties.
The 80-year-old leader was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital on Sunday.
Unless it leaves the NDA, we will wait and watch the developments, the NCP said.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Monday said there was no confusion within the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance over his meeting with nephew and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in Pune.
The raids are understood to be linked to a probe related to alleged irregularities in the operations of some sugar mills based in the state that are linked to Mushrif.
The government will not come down just because teh BJP are gossiping, state minister Nawab Malik said
The assurance came after the high court asked the minister whether he has lodged a complaint with the caste scrutiny committee regarding his allegations against Sameer Wankhede's caste credentials, and said if he has not done so what was his intention behind the 'media publicity', which it said does not befit a minister.
The wife of under-fire NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Tuesday came out in strong support of her husband and said they were getting threat calls, facing vicious trolling online and living in fear as she rejected allegations levelled against him by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik.
Bhim Army leader Ashok Kamble filed the complaint against Wankhede for allegedly forging documents.