Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday, said in Mumbai while being taken for a medical check-up that he would not back off.

“Ladenge, jeetenge, sabko expose karenge (Will fight, win and expose everyone),” Malik told reporters en route to JJ Hospital for a medical check-up.

He told a special court later: “In the office, they (the ED) made me sign a document which they later said was the summons.” The court sent Malik to ED custody till March 3.

Malik’s arrest comes almost two weeks after Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had written to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu alleging that Raut was being harassed by central agencies because he had refused to help topple the coalition government in Maharashtra.

Raut had linked the alleged vindictive politics to subversion of democracy, contending that central agencies were being misused to target the BJP’s rivals and dislodge Opposition governments. He had urged politicians to raise their voice and reminded them of Nazi rule, which had spared nobody after people failed to unite against injustice when there was time.

Sources in the ED said Malik, 62, was questioned in a money-laundering case linked to the activities of the Mumbai underworld, Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.

“ED officials reached his home at 6.45am and questioned him for an hour. He was then brought to the agency’s office and grilled for close to six hours over alleged transactions and land deals with Dawood’s associates. He was arrested for not cooperating with the probe and for evading questions,” an agency official said.

Malik is the second minister in the coalition government of the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress to be arrested by the central probe agency in the past four months. Former home minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh was arrested by the ED in November last year over charges of extortion and money-laundering. He is out on bail.

Earlier this month the ED had carried out raids at 10 locations, including premises linked to Dawood’s late sister Haseena Parkar and brother Iqbal Kaskar, and Salim Qureshi, brother-in-law of gangster Chhota Shakeel.

“During the investigation, we came across some evidence related to property purchased by Nawab Malik,” the ED official said.

The ED raids were in connection with the recent case registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against the D-Company under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA. Dawood and several of his aides have been named by the NIA for their roles in terror activities, including hawala transactions, against India.