The special court for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai took cognizance of the ED’s charge sheet against Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik and said there is prima facie evidence to suggest that he was directly and involved in money laundering and criminal conspiracy with D-Gang members to gobble up Goawala compound in Kurla.

D-Company is the informal name of the Bombay underworld organised criminal syndicate founded and controlled by Dawood Ibrahim,
a charge sheet was filed last month. Special judge Rahul Rokde went through the charge sheet and said, “After going through the allegations leveled in the complaint against the accused and on perusal of various documents placed on record, it appears that there are sufficient grounds for proceeding further with this case and hence, my opinion is that process is required to be issued in this case against the accused arrayed in this complaint.”

The court has issued a process against Malik and his companies, Solidus Investments Pvt Ltd and Malik Infrastructure, besides Sardar Shahvali Khan alias Sardar Khan — a 1993 blast convict who is currently lodged in the Aurangabad central prison.

The ED said that during the investigation, it was revealed that Hasina Parkar (deceased sister of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who, in local parlance, ran the D-Company) was involved in unauthorised possession/acquisition of key assets for raising terror funds. One such key asset is Goawala Compound, owned by Munira Plumber and Marium Goawala.

The ED charge sheet said, “It is alleged that Malik and members of the D­-Company criminally conspired and took unauthorised possession/acquisition of the property. It appears from the statements that Sardar Khan was also a part of the conspiracy. For his assistance in usurping the property of the Plumber, he got a covered area of around 368 sq metres in Goawala Compound.

To usurp the above property, members of the D-Company and Malik conspired together and executed several illegal documents to cover up the criminal act.

Malik and Parkar entered into a criminal conspiracy and Malik agreed to pay Rs 55 lakhs to Parkar, Rs 15 lakhs to Salim Patel (Parkar’s driver, now deceased) and Rs 5 lakhs to Sardar Khan.

The ED charge sheet said that initially, Malik illegally occupied Kurla General Store using intimidatory tactics. He misled people and took over the shed in Goawala Compound to acquire his company, Solidus Investments.

According to the charge sheet, Malik connived with Hasina Parkar and Sardar Khan and held a meeting to hatch a conspiracy. As a part of the conspiracy, Salim Patel, by tricking Plumber, executed a power of attorney in his favour. Subsequently, a forged supplementary power of attorney was executed in his favour.

Based on the forged power of attorney, several fake documents were created to usurp the property. Later on, Malik acquired the portion controlled by Parkar and Sardar.

He introduced fake tenants in the said property to lower its registry value. In the above shady dealings, Plumber and her mother did not receive a single rupee. Thus, accused Malik, in connivance with D­-Company members Hasina Parkar, Salim Patel and Sardar Khan, hatched a criminal conspiracy to usurp Plumber’s property.

The agency said that the property usurped by Malik in connivance with Hasina Parkar and others is proceeds of crime. The acquisition of the proceeds of crime is generated from illegal activities. “There is prima facie evidence to indicate that the accused is directly and knowingly involved in a money laundering offence, therefore, he is responsible for committing the offence and is liable for punishment,” said the ED.