Maharashtra Minister Nawab MalikPhoto : IANSMumbai: The Bombay High Court will hear on Wednesday the petition filed by Maharashtra Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Nawab Malik, seeking quashing of the case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is probing a money laundering case in connection with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.Malik, in his plea, claimed that the ED arrested him “illegally” and sought immediate release. Advocate Taraq Sayed, the counsel of the Maharastra minister, filed the plea before a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N R Borkar on Tuesday. The minister has alleged that he was targeted for being a “vocal critic of the misuse of central agencies”.The powerful NCP leader, considered to be a close aide of Sharad Pawar, was arrested by the ED on February 23 in an alleged money-laundering case based on the National Investigation Agency’s February 3 FIR against absconding Dawood Ibrahim.Malik claimed innocence maintained that he has no connection with any of the “anti-national” accused (Dawood Ibrahim and other gangsters) named in the FIR.Related NewsED probe links Rs 200 crore Mumbai plot to Nawab Malik’s familyPressure mounts on MVA to sack Nawab Malik as BJP threatens to expose ‘terror links’The ED has contended that Malik in connivance with Dawood Ibrahim’s aides – Haseena Parker, Salim Patel and Sardar Khan hatched a conspiracy to grab the ancestral property of a woman in Kurla at a throwaway price which is valued at around Rs 300 crore.The ED filed a case based on an FIR filed recently by the NIA against Dawood and others. The NIA had filed its criminal complaint under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).