MUMBAI: Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Friday claimed that he made public the photos of the first wife of NCB officer Sameer Wankhede with her prior consent.
The minister also said he has never said anything against Wankhede's current wife, actor Kranti Redkar, and she should not play the "Marathi card".
Malik was asked by reporters whether it was appropriate on his part to use the photos of Dr Shabana Qureshi, the first wife of Sameer Wankhede, when the couple had divorced by mutual consent some years ago.
Some BJP leaders too had raised this point.
The NCP leader said when he received the photos from someone, he was told that the person (in the photographs) had agreed that they could be used.
"Dr Shabana Qureshi was never willing to come forward or speak over this issue (earlier). When Sameer Wankhede started stressing that he is Hindu, they had to speak up. Her father then told everyone that they always knew Wankhede family as being Muslim," Malik said.
The state minority affairs minister also said he never made any comment or allegation against Kranti Redkar.
"While she has been playing the Marathi card, I want to underscore the fact that I and my family have been living in Maharashtra for almost 70 years. Am I not a Maharashtrian?" said the NCP leader.
Redkar should not forget that her husband was "part of a conspiracy to defame Maharashtra and Mumbai," Malik further said.
"I do not think a person will be saved only because he is a Maharashtrian, even if he belongs to certain caste or religion," he added.
Malik has levelled several allegations against Wankhede, the zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, following a raid by the NCB on a cruise ship during which drugs were allegedly recovered and actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan was arrested along with others.
The minister claimed that Wankhede got a government job in the Scheduled Castes category even when he was Muslim by birth.
The NCB official has maintained that he is Hindu.