Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted Wednesday afternoon to say he had been ‘detained’ by Mumbai Police. Fadnavis, who has been leading the BJP’s protests in demanding the resignation of minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik – who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate over a money laundering case linked to gangster Dawood Ibrahim – said he had been detained and was at a police station.
“At the Yellow Gate Police Station, Mumbai after MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government detained me and colleagues,” he tweeted with a dramatic video showing him walking up the police station’s driveway.
His office posted: “Instead of taking resignation of minister Nawab Malik, MVA government (the Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress alliance in power in Maharashtra) detained former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and BJP leaders who was demanding action against killers of Mumbaikars…”
Fadnavis earlier tweeted “We will not stop till (the) traitor who supports terrorists – Minister Nawab Malik resigns…” with photos of today’s protest.
Union minister and Republican Party of India (Athawale) chief Ramdas Athawale told reporters the ‘tradition of Maharashtra is sullied when a minister who needs to be sacked is not removed from his post’.
Senior NCP leader Malik was arrested on February 23 by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.
He is currently in judicial custody.
The BJP has been demanding Malik’s resignation but MVA leaders have junked the demand, saying Malik was wrongfully targeted by alleged misuse of central agencies by the BJP.
Malik has termed his arrest ‘illegal’ and has urged the Bombay High Court to set it aside. A hearing on that plea began yesterday and is in its second day today.