Maharashtra Minority Development Minister Nawab Malik on Thursday said that he was not scared of central agencies after the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids in connection with an alleged land scam case involving the Pune Waqf Board, reported the Hindustan Times. The Waqf Board falls under his ministry.

“News reports are claiming that now Nawab Malik will be in trouble as ED [Enforcement Directorate] has taken up some cases pertaining to his ministry,” Malik said at a press conference. “I want to say ED is more than welcome and we will cooperate with them in every possible way.”

He added: “If there is a campaign to threaten me or to malign my image because of the fight that we have started against central agencies, then I would say Maharashtra government, Maharashtra ministers, leaders do not get scared by central agencies.”

The central agency on Thursday morning conducted raids at seven locations in Pune and one place in Aurangabad in connection with the alleged scam involving irregularities of Rs 10 crore.

During his press conference, Malik clarified that the Waqf Board office was not raided.

Malik said that his ministry has already taken action on the alleged scam. He said that a first information report has been filed and five people have been arrested in connection with the case. Three people have got bail, the minister added.

“After I took charge of the department, Waqf Board has the full freedom to work according to the act,” he said. “Also for the first time in the history of Maharashtra, 10 members of the Waqf Board have been appointed. It is for the first time that Maharashtra has a full-fledged Waqf Board. We also have a permanent CEO of the board now.”

Malik suggested that it was Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis on whose complaint the raid was conducted. “The agency can only clarify whether Devendra Fadnavis made the complaint or not,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Fadnavis’ wife Amruta Fadnavis had sent a legal notice to Malik, claiming that the photographs shared by the minister were defamatory.

Malik had earlier shared photographs of Amruta Fadnavis with a man named Jaideep Rana, who he claimed was arrested in a drugs case.

The notice said that Rana was hired by the creative team of River March NGO and Fadnavis had no association with him. She had sung a song and shot a music video for the non governmental organisation.

There is an ongoing tussle between Devendra Fadnavis and Malik. The Nationalist Congress Party leader has made several allegations against the Narcotics Control Bureau’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who had been investigating the Mumbai drug cruise ship case, involving actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, until last week.

Among several accusations, Malik has alleged that Wankhede used forged documents to get his job under the Scheduled Caste quota and that the Narcotics Control Bureau officer had been illegally tapping phones.

Devendra Fadnavis claims that the allegations are just a ploy to get the central agency to weaken the chargesheet against Malik’s son-in-law, who was arrested in a drugs case earlier this year, reported NDTV. He is out on bail.

Earlier on Thursday, Amruta Fadnavis had called Malik a “spoiled Nawab”, who she said was holding press conferences one after another and spreading “lies and deceit.”

“His [Nawab Malik’s] goal is the same, my brother – to save their son-in-law and black money” she tweeted.