Nawab Malik case: Co-accused seeks to turn prosecution witness, withdraws plea

Mumbai: Sardar Khan, a co-accused in a money laundering case connected with NCP leader Nawab Malik, on Tuesday made an application before a special court to become a prosecution witness, make disclosures of facts in his knowledge connected to Kurla case and hence seek pardon. Later in the day, though, he withdrew the plea.

Khan is a convict in the 1993 blasts case

Khan is a convict in the 1993 blasts case and is serving a life sentence in Aurangabad prison. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had made him its witness. In his statement to the agency, he had stated that Malik was a muscleman in the Kurla locality and had illegally occupied Kurla general store, which was in Kurla’s Goawala compound. He had also stated that Malik and Haseena Parkar (Dawood Ibrahim’s deceased sister) were both vying for a larger chunk of the property and also claimed to be present in some of the meetings regarding the land held between Malik and Parkar.

On Tuesday, Khan was not represented by a lawyer and the court had explained the implications of his plea to him and he wanted to proceed with it. Later, he had sought permission to have two advocates represent him, which the court granted. He then, through them, withdrew his plea.